Press Statement by Chong Eng in Bukit Mertajam on Tuesday, 2^nd March 2010:

School children need to get information about human sexuality to protect themselves from sexual violation and to nurture respect and responsibility in man-woman relationship

I refer to NST's report yesterday on the need to introduce sex education as a subject in school.Sex is always a sensitive issue in our society. Many worried that sex education will drive our youth to experiment with sex and hence indirectly encouraging premarital sex.

Studies showed that youth who receive sex education in fact abstained from sexual activities compared to those who did not. And if they do engage in sexual acts, at least they know what they are getting into and it is an informed choice and they know how to protect themselves from unwanted pregnancy, STD and HIV. Social workers who work with youngsters lamented that youth started having sex earlier than before and there are more and more cases of abandoned babies and STDs among young people.

In recent years, teenage pregnancies of mothers below the age of 15 amounted to about 0.15% of the total birth in Malaysia while young people between the age of 13-19 years old make up about 1.4% of total reported cases of HIV. Girls as young as 4 years old were sexually violated. There were 4959 reported rape cases in 2008 and about 50% of the victims were girls below 16 years. Some of the perpetuators are as young as 12 years old.

More and more teenage girls found themselves pregnant by their equally young boy friends. These girls either dropped out or were sacked by the school. More and more girls also fall prey to sex predators online.

I therefore agreed with Datuk Seri Shahrizat, Women, Family and Community Development Minister, that we can no longer sweep things under the carpet. I strongly believe we need to give sex-related information to our children as young as 4 years old so that they know how to protect themselves or at least seek help when they are sexually-violated.

More importantly, we need to inculcate the right attitude towards man-woman relationship and the right understanding of the meaning of sexual act in a relationship to both male and female teenagers. They need to be educated about sexuality and mutual respect for the other gender, the human reproductive system and pregnancy, sexually transmitted disease including HIV and consequences of unprotected sex.

Besides imparting such knowledge in schools, I believe parents and teachers should be educated as well so that they are competent to also teach their children and students.

Hence, incorporating sex-related information into school curriculum is one of the many ways in tackling the ignorance in this aspect among youth, which we hope will reduce social problems related to sexual activities involving children and teenages.

* Chong Eng, DAP Deputy Secretary General, DAP Wanita Chairperson, DAP Education Bureau Chief & MP for Bukit Mertajam