Karnataka Govt To Roll Out Adolescent Education In Schools; Curriculum To Include ‘Right Touch, Wrong Touch’ News24 –
The government of the state is planning to roll out sex education in schools as early as this year itself. It is going by the name of adolescent education in order not to be controversial. Six months on since he announced it on the floor of Legislative Council during Belagavi session in December 2024, Minister for School Education and Literacy Madhu Bangarappa has assigned a task to the department thus mandating it to make the necessary preparations to being sex education in schools, between class 8 and 12.
Concurring this with DH, Commissioner, Department of School Education Dr Trilokchandra K V said that the curriculum was being formulated at the Department of School Education Research and Training (DSERT). So as not to be opposed, the department is playing very safe, by naming it adolescent education, and inserting it as under moral science education. Trilokchandra said, DSERT was drawing up the age-specific curriculum.
The intended proposal is to conduct adolescent instruction using independent books as indicated by the officials. When prepared, the curriculum will be forwarded to the District Institutes of Education & Training (DIETs) where teachers will be equipped on how to deliver the information. We have observed teachers who have displayed reluctance in teaching kids sex.
This stigma should be eliminated at first in the mind of teachers and parents, said a senior official of the department who was included in the committee that submitted draft recommendations on the content. The officials admitted that adolescent education is among subjects that the 80 plus values prescribed by the union government has to be introduced in the curriculum. Although different organisations suggested that children should be empowered on sexuality at a tender age, none of the governments in the past could take the initiative of doing it successfully due to opposition by parents, teachers, and political, and religious leaders among other groups.
In 2007, based on the pressure of the experts and child rights activists, the then Kumaraswamy government, attempted to introduce sex education, in classes 8 to 12. Since the idea was faced by criticism and opposition, the idea was abandoned too. The same was planned during the previous term of the BJP government when the then school education minister B C Nagesh enticed to work the plan into reality by keeping the religious leaders and other experts into confidence.
The proposal was abandoned after a couple of meetings. These days Madhu Bangarappa has made the move and is sure that he can carry it through. Experts say that children need education about sex. General secretary to Associated Management of Primary and Secondary Schools in Karnataka D Shashi Kumar welcomed the move. He commented that, “We are emphasizing this over the past years. May it (then) be introduced successfully. Since children are exposed to everything today easily, it is our role to teach them what is wrong and what is right at any given age. The thing is when we mention sex education it is the time that parents and other people will start resisting it. Such stigma needs to be changed by way of education.”
Kumar added that kids are now reaching puberty at class 4 and 5 and they are stimulated by hormones as early as 10 or 11 years. We must educate them on body hygiene, changes of the body during the age and the subsequent one. This is all together under sex education”. A number of such schools already have sex education. The minister said so, in reply, in writing, to the House.
He said the sex education classes will enable the children to cope with the hormonal changes that cause physical, mental and emotional changes. Emphasising on the use of word sexuality rather than sex education, Vasudeva Sharma, the executive director Child Rights Trust, added, what we were earlier referring to as infatuation has become adolescent sexual behaviour now and it is quite natural. Admittedly the power can be present everywhere.
Social media, cinema, OTT, and even the surroundings. Children are also being exposed to such open behaviour in parks, metro, bus, trains and so on. This is weighing in on them. The education needs not to be sex education and we should name it sexuality so as to eliminate the stigma. According to Sharma, sexuality learning will enable the children to know the biological changes that occur in them as well as the opposite gender.
It is also very essential to know the significance of their own bodies as well as the understanding and respecting that of others. This will assist it in safeguarding itself,” he said. Sharma has referred to the rise in teen pregnancies and added that sexuality education should prevent such cases. With the provision of appropriate sexuality education at the appropriate age, he said child marriage, teen pregnancies and other tendencies can be prevented.
Nagasimha G Rao, child rights activist commented that children and adolescents have been affected by confusion because there has been no proper information on sex that they can rely on and that sex has never been taught in schools. Once again, I think most parents will not agree. Exposure of the children to pornographic materials is on the rise and this is quite risky”.
According to him, the optional protocol 2 of UNCRC (United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child) puts an obligation on the government to prevent children being exposed to such contents and to supply them with the proper information regarding sexual health. By providing sex education, it is possible to avoid early pregnancy and curb cases under Protection of Children against Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
To mitigate this, the government ought to come up with a progressive sex education program and teacher training specialisation, with the best interest of the children, as the priority of concern, Rao said. The commission of the Karnataka state protection of child rights chairperson Naganna Gowda recommended the department to incorporate POCSO Act into the content.