Sex education in Malaysia

I have nothing against it, really. But I really don't think it's necessary nor relevant at the moment. Here's why:

They (I hate to overgeneralize, but the Westerners, who have sex education taught as a subject in their schools) have this lifestyle, where people think it's fine to have a premarital sex and lose your virginity when the time is right. Therefore, it is essential for the parents to have 'the talk' with their kids, introducing them to the 'birds and the bees', safe sex and etc. So when sex education is taught in school, the responsibility of having 'the talk' with their kids are relieved to the teacher.

In Malaysia, however, it is still taboo to talk about sex in open, let alone having premarital sex. Well no point in denying that some are okay with it, true, but not the community in general. Therefore, parents don't really talk about intercourse with their children. Because we know it is 'morally and socially' wrong to have intercourse before marriage. With very little/no exposure from parents (I believe no exposure at all), why should we suddenly put the unnecessary burden on the teachers? If it is taboo to be talked even with your own parents, why should it be talked about out in open? 

So IMHO there really is no point in implementing sex education, and what we learned in science/biology is sufficient, I think. It'll be like a bomb being dropped on the students.

I know in some ways sex education would affect adolescents' attitude towards sex-related behavior, but I don't think we are ready for it. Unless parents start telling their kids about courtship and intercourse (which will in a way indicates that they are okay with sex, but I still personally think parents shouldn't be having the talk with their kids until they got serious with someone because if not the kids will think that their parents are fine with them having premarital sex), only then sex education is relevant and/or necessary.

Comments

Anonymous said…
can i share this post in facebook darling?
8 May 2011 at 01:39
hawanasir said…
sure honey, do as you please :)
8 May 2011 at 15:24
Fareha Noor said…
sex education? well, i was exposed to sex education sisnce i was little. tpi y kelakarnya cara mak aku ckp kt adik2 aku skrng bila aku dgr.
9 May 2011 at 16:58
Lidia said…
With all do respect, I completely disagree with your sediments. Sex education isn't based on encouraging our younger generation to have sex. It is educating them about issues that come up IF they were to have sex, how to have effective safe sex, what to do to prevent STDs and premarital pregnancy. Whether we want to admit it our not, our teenagers are having premarital sex. We see it in the increase of STDs, baby dumping, and back ally abortions. So we can either be quiet about it and look the other way, or we can face the reality and do something about it. Without educating students, they, especially women, are left in the dark about birth control and other sources of prevention. I must ask, when in the history of the world has more education been more harmful then beneficial? If a family considers premarital sex socially or morally wrong, they can still express that to their children. Additionally, just because something is taboo, it doesn't mean that it is wrong. We have the power to overcome unreasonable taboos.
6 June 2011 at 19:36
hawanasir said…
Hi Lidia
Thanks for your opinion. I really appreciate it. But with all due respect, I think you're missing out the point of this post.

While I agree with you, sex education and awareness about safe sex and birth control and everything is beneficial (and yes, education never harms anyone), I think there's no point in implementing it when the parents aren't ready.

Parents are the ones we should be alerting about the current rate of premarital sex before we decide to implement sex education in school, because I also believe education starts from home.

Parents should start telling their offspring about sex first, only then it is relevant to be taught in school.

I do agree with making sex education a formal subject in school, but not now. Not when 80 percent of the parents don't feel the need to tell their children about sex.

Thanks.
6 June 2011 at 20:19
Tan Zhan Peng said…
I strongly feel that parents must be open about premarital sex with their children so that the issue can be discussed effectively.This is because , if parents were to be anti PMS and their children favour PMS a vast number of discrepancies will arise thus straining the relationships in the family.
1 August 2011 at 06:54
hawanasir said…
Thank you, I strongly agree with you. And I should stress that I never said that sex education isn't important, it CAN be done, but in order for that to happen, parents must start by being open about it.

And that's when the parents' decision is important.
1 August 2011 at 11:32
Michelle said…
I would like to express my opinion in this matter. I am a future teacher who survived my twelve years of primary and secondary education without the need of sex education. With due respect, I have to agree with Ms Hawanasir. I do not think that Malaysia is ready for sex education yet, considering that policy makers are planning to expose it to children even as early as Primary One. I would like to shift the attention from the children to the role of parents. Children(kids, teenagers) are children who are still unable to make rationale and mature judgments. They are at that vulnerable age where they can be easily influenced or distracted by emotions, peers, medias etc. Their reasoning voice is limited to what they want right there and then. Can we expect a 14 years old child or an 8 years old child or even a 17 years old child to make the right decision?

As an adult or future parent, the concern is still there. can our children make the right decision? Parents, on the other hand, play a significant role in guiding the children. I personally believe that the upbringing of a child is very important. it is the main responsibility for parents to educate, guide and protect their children from bad influences. Nowadays, we have tv shows, musics and advertisement that promotes soft porns, heavily embedded with sexual innuendoes but what do we see the trend now?? Ignorance and lack of control by parents. You may say that, as parents, we can't stop the influence from coming, but have we ever tried and put effort? Filtering contents of tv shows when sitting and watching with our children? Telling our kids that this song is not healthy to listen to? The family value in the first place, has eroded.

Why don't we focus more on the responsibilities of parents first? I think it is better to address the root of the problem. To me, introducing sex education is just like taking the easy way out. it's like saying, "after all, they will know about it someday, why not now?" Giving and allowing such exposure does not grant that they will not avoid pre-marital sex. They will know how to have sex safely but will it stop them from having multiple sex partners because now that they(the children) know how to do it safely? It is selfish to rob away the children's innocence by exposing them to things that are not appropriate for them yet just so that you can stop baby dumping cases, sex-related diseases cases and abortion cases from increasing. There are other ways.
12 December 2011 at 23:59
Michelle said…
Also, the idea of sex education as how the author of the blog points out, originated from the Western culture. Why do we Eastern culture should follow suit and talk about sex openly? Why not start filtering medias that contain sexually-related innuendos? We are originally a society grounded with traditional values, strong religious backgrounds. Why not use the mentioned mediums to educate children about this issue? why must it be a subject of sex education in school? As discussed in this thread also, Malaysia still consider sex as a taboo. It should be that way because if we allow it to be discuss openly, people no longer feel that it is wrong anymore to discuss about sex. Have you ever wondered in the first place, why are some things considered as a taboo? Of course, there are things that should be highlighted and not remain as a taboo but in this case, i feel it is relevant to not talk about sex publicly. Imagine a 9 years old child walking around talking about sex when it is not a taboo anymore. Sex education is still new to our society. Nevermind the Western culture, they don't really value the idea of abstinence or intercourse after marriage. As parents or future parents, will you be confident in leaving your child to be educated about this topic to teachers in schools? Even as a future teacher, let me tell you this, there are a whole lot of bunch weird teachers out there teaching weird things to your kids. Plus, remember cases of child molestation by teachers? Can you be 100% confident about the way the information in conveyed correctly and appropriately? I'll be very worried.

See, there is no currently the right methodology or research being done in the Malaysian context to actually prove that sex education is appropriate for our society. I dare say that it will be stupid to abruptly introduce sex education into the educational system just to curb social problems related to sex. Therefore, I would like to stress again, sex education is not the final answer. Rather than focusing too much on it, why not look into the parents' role firstly? If parents make the commitment in teaching and educating their chidlren, you don't have to worry about your children being influenced by sexually related problems. Thank you.
13 December 2011 at 00:01
hawanasir said…
Thank you Michele for explaining more about parents' responsibilities in this matter. We DID survive years of schooling without sex education, and I think we have our parents to be thanked for. So whatever it is, it always comes back to the parents.
15 December 2011 at 06:38
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