Lagos, UNFPA, others seek inclusion of sexual education in school curriculum

The Lagos State Government, United Nations Population Fund, UNPFA and some key stakeholders in sex education have called for the inclusion of sex education into the curriculum of non-formal vocational training.

This proposal was made during an advocacy programme put together by the Lagos State Ministry of Youth and Social Development with the sponsorship of United Nations Population Fund UNFPA, Nigeria.

The Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Youth and Social Development, Mr. Hakeem Muri-Okunola who spoke at the event on Friday, joined other relevant stakeholders to harp on the need to include Comprehensive Sexuality Education (using the Family Life and Health Education Textbook) by Action Health Incorporated into non-formal vocational training.

While stressing the importance of ensuring that every young person has comprehensive sexuality education either in formal or informal education, the Permanent Secretary maintained that there are 1.8 billion young people worldwide between the ages 10 and 24 with different needs and identities shaped by a number of cross-cutting factors including gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, class and disability

This demographic reality according to him, requires governments, decision-makers, educators, health providers and parents to make it a duty to enable young people to realize their rights, including ensuring that all young people receive high-quality Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE)

He added that the high-quality CSE programme for young people should consider the full spectrum of young people’s sexual and reproductive lives, be delivered within schools and the national curriculum as well as across non-formal settings as well as focusing explicitly on reaching young people who are particularly vulnerable and who are excluded from the schooling system.

The Permanent Secretary who was represented at the event by the Director of Youth Department in the Ministry, Mr. Bode Adams, disclosed that the call by the State government for the inclusion of Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) in vocational education curriculum was in line with the position of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Commission on Population Development

He opined that government should implement high-quality CSE inside and outside schools as a matter of necessity and not as a political choice.

Also speaking at the event, the representative of the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Economic Planning and Budget, and Director of Development Partnership, Mr. Adetola Bankole stressed the needs for more developmental partnership similar to the continual support received by the state government from UNFPA on government plans, programmes and policies for the overall benefit of the residents of the State.

The representative of UNFPA in Lagos, Dr. Sofemu Esther, said that the teaching on sexuality should not be left to the formal setting alone as uneducated young persons are also at larger risk of unwanted pregnancies and Sexually Transmitted Diseases, STDs, hence the need to include this category of persons in the enlightenment process that is capable of giving them more quality life.

She expressed the belief that if the vocational trainees are equipped with the right sexual information, their decision-making process would be better-guided and they would not make choices that would end up truncating their future.

“What the UNFPA is saying is that no one should be left behind in accessing quality sexual education regardless of the level of education the person has. Equal opportunity for all is the message we are preaching and we don’t want the career path of these young ones to be cut short because of lack of access to meaningful information.”

She called on LASTVEB that would be at the forefront of implementing the proposal to ensure that the sexual needs of the young ones in the various vocational centres across the State are adequately protected