Talking about Sex « Beyond Borders Sri Lanka

Talking about Sex

17May08

Dinidu speaks about the importance of Sex Ed. in an interview with Sirasa TV’s Good Morning Sri Lanka programme.

Among the issues discussed are, prevalence of HIV/AIDS, the effectiveness of the peer education model, questions about whether Sex Ed. actually increases the level of sexual activity. The interview, which is in Sinhala was before the 8th ICAAP conference 2007 held in Colombo.

Despite the propensity to think otherwise, Young people in Sri Lanka are sexually active. Average age of sex for Sri Lankan males is at 15 and females at 14 (UNICEF/2006). Sex Ed., although present in the Sri Lankan education curriculum is often ignored by teachers. Experiences of other countries shows that a higher standard of sex education at an early age prolong the average age of sexual intercourse of young people.

Sex Education was one of the main action areas for Beyond Borders regionally for the year 2006/2007. In late 2007, the Ministry of Education in Sri Lanka sent out a circular to enforce a previously existing policy of requiring explicit approval from the Ministry for any external workshops conducted on Sex education thus making any informal efforts for Sex ed. extremely difficult.