"Nowadays, teachers cannot depend on school textbooks because there are many things that cannot be acquired from books, for instance, sex education. Teachers don`t have to always rely on textbooks," Diah Harianti said.Jakarta, Nov 5 (ANTARA) - The Education and Culture Ministry`s curriculum and books content head, Diah Harianti, has stated that teachers need to be creative in providing sex education at schools because not all kinds of lessons can be included in the textbooks.
"Nowadays, teachers cannot depend on school textbooks because there are many things that cannot be acquired from books, for instance, sex education. Teachers don`t have to always rely on textbooks," she said.
"Teachers could even bring in speakers from outside the school," Harianti added.
She made the statement after announcing the winners of "the Enriching Book Writing Competition 2012" here on Monday.
In school textbooks, Hariati noted, the chapters containing sex education were often considered "bad chapters".
"While, in fact, sex education is necessary to give knowledge about puberty to the youth," she continued.
"Sex education is very important. There is a problem only when it is provided in the wrong way," Hariati explained.
According to Harianti, sex education has become all the more important for teenage students in light of the rapid flow of information in the information technology era.
Therefore, she said, students need to be taught about human reproduction in an engaging manner.
"The point is teachers must be creative during sex education presentations. They can also divide the class based on gender while giving the lesson," Hartati pointed out.
"Recent studies claim that teenagers who get proper sex education are more likely to not engage in sexual activities at an early age and later use condoms and contraceptives when they are adults," she added.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2012
