DEPED defers implementation of sex education

The Department of Education (DepEd) decided to “hold in abeyance” integration of sex education in the basic curriculum.

Education Secretary Mona Valisno on Monday said, however, that they will implement the program after consultation with the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) and others opposed to the plan.

Valisno clarified that the deferment was not a reaction to Monday’s filing of a class suit by Ang Kapatiran Party (AKP) before the Regional Trial Court of Quezon City seeking to stop the department from teaching sex education in public and private elementary and high schools.

“We decided to hold in abeyance the teaching of the sex education modules until a final decision was made on the consultation process,” she said during an interview at her office hours after the class suit was filed.
But Valisno said that teaching of adolescent reproductive health systems and other subjects that are part of regular courses such as in Science would still push through.

According to her, the Education department is holding consultations with those opposed to the plan. She said that they had sent invitations thrice to the bishops for a dialogue but they have not received a positive response.

Valisno added that DepEd is open to modifying contents of the sex education modules if such modules go against Christian values.

She reiterated the department’s earlier position that sex education is needed to stem the rising incidence of teenage pregnancies in the country.

“There’s an urgency due to the alarming hike in teenage pregnancies. About 46 percent of pregnancies involved teenagers ranging in age from 15 to 17 and majority of them came from the disadvantaged class of society,” Valisno said.

The department said that the sex-education program would help curb teenage pregnancies and the rise of sexually transmitted diseases.

Valisno said that the filing of a class suit was a surprise, considering that they are yet to start pilot-testing of the sex education modules in some 80 elementary and 79 secondary schools nationwide.

She added that Education department would follow any decision of the Regional Trial Court of Quezon City on the case.

Concerned parents on Monday trooped to the Regional Trial Court of Quezon City to file a petition against DepEd’s decision to integrate reproductive health program in the syllabus for elementary and high-school students in public and private schools, especially after discovering that modules for the program include introducing “non-invasive sexual activities.”

Lawyer Jo Aurea Imbong, the executive secretary of the CBCP legal office, and Dr. Ligaya Acosta, the executive director for Asia-Pacific and Oceania of Human Life International, condemned the introduction of reproductive health program into elementary and high schools.

They called on President-elect Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino 3rd to address the issue, and to uphold his “moral values as Christian.”

In a 30-page resolution, Imbong and Acosta moved that “a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction be issued, directing respondents [Education Secretary Mona Valisno and department Undersecretary Ramon Bacani] to cease and desist from implementing [DepEd’s] Institutionalizing Adoloscent Reproductive Health Through Lifeskills-based Education Program.”

The resolution said that after hearing on the case, the injunction must be made permanent and the Education department memorandum must be declared “null and void.”

The department, in partnership with the United Nations Population Fund, has ordered the implementation of the reproductive health program from School Year 2010 and onward.

The program supposedly will teach sex education for pupils in grade schools who are at least nine years old and those in public and private schools.

The memorandum of the department argued that sex education is being taught in countries in Europe and America.

But the petition also argued that sex education in the country is “unconstitutional and illegal,” and that the Education department is acting without or in excess of jurisdiction or “with grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction.”

Imbong noted that practicing sex education in the country is violation of certain laws, including “the primary right of parents to the development of the moral character of their children, right of families or family associations to participate in planning and implementation of policies affecting them, right of spouses to found a family according to their religious beliefs, sanctity of family life and the protection due the family as a basic autonomous social institution and the violation of marriage as an inviolable social institution and as the foundation of the family that merits the protection of the state.”

She and Acosta said that even developed countries that practice sex education receive no benefits from teaching young children how to be safe in their sexual activities.

“Researches around the world substantiate the fact that the more contraceptive programs are aimed at the young, the more pregnancies, abortions, promiscuity, sexually transmitted diseases and cancer of the cervix result,” Acosta said.

She added that in the DepEd modules, the program is encouraging masturbation, debate on abortion, role-playing and group discussion on sexuality.

San Fernando Archbishop Paciano Aniceto, the chairman of the CBCP Episcopal Committee on Family and Life, called on President-elect Aquino to “do what is according to moral law and according to the dignity and rights of every Filipino.”

“He [Aquino] must devote to the importance of this project. He is responsible for the spiritual, mental and physical development of the people,” he said.

“We would like to call on the President to stop this. We are with you in your fight against corruption, but there is worse corruption—corruption of moral values,” Acosta said.

Aniceto said that sex education must begin at home, from the child’s parents, rather than for it to be taught in schools.

“We are going to do our very best to stop this project, to bring back to where sex education should be taught,” he added.

The Education department is standing its ground on teaching sex education.
Education Undersecretary for Legal Affairs Franklin Sunga told The Manila Times that there is nothing in the Constitution that bans sex education in schools.

According to Valisno, psychologists were among those who helped prepare the modules “because we want to ensure that specific topics for discussions will be made in the appropriate year levels.”

Topics requiring a more mature audience, the Education secretary said, will be discussed in higher levels. –Francis Earl A. Cueto Reporter with Reports From Camille Bernice V. Bauzon and Jun Marcos, Manila Times