VietNamNet Bridge – The policy on saying “no” to pre-marriage sex and the scrutiny kept by parents and teachers are the biggest barriers to the sexual health education to minors.

Only threats and warnings…

A survey conducted by the Center for Health and Population Initiatives, more than 1/3 of polled minors said they have sex at least one time, but they considered these the accidental things, which were out of their control.

The center has also found from the survey that it is popular that minors have lovers. Especially, 24.27 percent of the minors said they have three and more lovers. However, the polled minors proved to have very ambiguous knowledge about pre-marriage sex, and they did not have proactive protection when having sex.

Fifty percent of the minors aged from 16 to 18 who had sex revealed that they did not use any protective measure when having sex for the first time. Meanwhile, 40 percent of them said they also did not apply any protective measure when having sex lately.

Most minors have the willingness to learn more about sex and emotional relations from their parents and teachers. They believe that sex education can bring important knowledge necessary for their lives, and they want to be able to learn about this right from primary school. However, what they have received so far is just threats and warnings from parents and teachers.

Students complained that parents and teachers have been unfair in behaving with minors, while they do not think that juveniles’ sex and love are serious matters.

A parent said frankly that if she finds contraceptives in her daughter’s pocket, she would tell the daughter to stop, if the girl wants to grow up into useful person.

“If my daughter really wants to become corrupted, I will let her leave home,” she added.

Most of the parents express their uncompromising attitudes to their children in the matters relating to love and sex. This explains why children tend to be not open to their parents and teachers. Since they cannot get useful advices from adults, they may make mistakes in their lives.

… and dry, academic knowledge given to students

Scientists have pointed out that sex and reproductive health education is not the matter of the juveniles aged 16-18, but the education should be started when children get 12 years old.

Tran Thi Hoa, a doctor in Hanoi, said she receives a lot of patients, who came to her private clinic not to treat normal diseases, but the sexually transmitted infections.

She believes that a lot of minors suffer from diseases just because they lack necessary knowledge about sex and reproductive health. Therefore, she has suggested opening an exhibition on sex education for minors.

“I have learned that two girls have given birth recently at the age of 15. It’s necessary to do something to stop the problem,” she said.

The Ministry of Education and Training has recently decided to bring sex education curriculums to general schools. However, this still has not helped much, because the knowledge given to students is dry, academic and unattractive.

“General schools don’t have social workers, though the supply is profuse. As far as I know, some 40 training establishments in Vietnam produce the graduates in social works,” said Nguyen Hiep Thuong from the Hanoi University of Education.

Tien Phong