Sex Ed. can contain HIV/AIDS « Beyond Borders Sri Lanka

Sex Ed. can contain HIV/AIDS

04Dec07

Says Nimal Siripala de Silva, the Minister of Health care and Nutrition. The daily mirror reports ..

Sex education is absolutely necessary if Sri Lanka is to maintain its present low prevalence rate of HIV/AIDS and to contain the spread of this dreaded disease, [..]

Addressing a function held at Battaramulla to mark the World AIDS Day, Minister de Silva said Sri Lanka should not remain complacent about its achievements in the healthcare sector which is praised as one of the best healthcare providers in the region. “The sex education, on HIV/AIDS in particular in the school curriculum is sine qua non under the present context of human behaviour. Children are exposed to many challenges when they travel, study or participate in day to day activities and interact with others. The health ministry has held discussions with Education Minister, Susil Premjayantha in connection with introducing sex education into the school curriculum and the response has been positive,” Mr. de Silva said. [link]

Not only the health authorities but the people themselves must always be vigilant to prevent any increase in the incidence of HIV/AIDS in the country as the disease could develop into epidemic proportions at any time if we become complacent, he stressed.

We couldnt agree more. We are even more delighted that the education ministry has given a “positive response” on the matter. An encouraging development, since from recently the Education ministry have sent out a circular to prohibiting any external entities from conducting Sex. Ed programs in Schools without explicit ministry approval.

The critical question will be what kind of Sex ed. we are talking about? hopefully it wont be Abstenence-only, in which case it would be useless.