THIS has got to be the touchiest issue in our school system: sex education, its inadequacy, and now, the call to expand it. Whenever the issue crops up, it is usually by researchers whose findings get drowned out by political rhetoric. Yet sex is a fundamental to the human condition, just like breathing, feeding, shelter, clothing and hygiene. Yes, it has been taught, somewhat, for decades in schools, but teachers tread discreetly.
In polite society, sex education is the knowledge of human procreation to be "self-learnt naturally" by adolescence and consummated years later upon marriage.
But sex education in its currentform has not been illuminating because sexual harassment on the streets and in corporate corridors, unwanted teen pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, sexual abuse, sexual predatory instincts, incest rape and other unspeakable social side-effects, are prevalent. The latest examples are the men raping their daughters and religious teachers sexually molesting their wards.
Interviewing the hundreds of incarcerated sexual predators, psychologists often asked this question: "Why did you rape your daughter?"
Stunningly, the predators' responses are near identical: they honestly believed that it is their "right" to do whatever they wish with their female progenies.
The responses are as shocking 50 years ago as it is now: incest rape has proven to be an unstoppable generational malaise. The issue goes on because primarily, the school system's sex education was poorly conceived.
In this digital age where sexual deviations flourish, we have to wonder how minors, immersed in social media, absorb guides on their sexuality. Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri seems to be seeing things clearly as she advocates the expansion of sex education.
The idea is to inform and guard minors against sexual harassment and assault, especially from family members. She promises that the issue will be deliberated at the next National Social Council meeting.
In the long run, sex education is pertinent, but in reality, tough and complicated to implement. Compulsory training for teachers, augmented by resources and monitoring, should be pre-conditions in educating minors, but so is robust parental engagement. Regrettably, what stifles these progressive ideals are the same belly-aching of ultraconservatives and their political-religious platforms.
They will continue to condemn sex education as sinful and "pandering" to porn, though ironically, their remonstrations unwittingly allow predators to hide among their flock.