Human sexuality: the controversy continues

Sex education should be an integrated component of population education programs in the Philippines. There are, however, a variety of objections to this approach, which are linked to proposals that sex education is more relevant to biology and medicine curriculums. The Population Education Program of the Philippines conducted a study of 2093 parents and 4550 teachers to determine who registered objections to teaching certain population education content, what they objected to, and why such objections were raised. Findings show that only 3% of the sample reacted unfavorably to the inclusion of controversial topics, such as sex terms, illustrations of sex organs and the naming of contraceptive devices. The issues remaining to be solved are: content, terminology, teacher competence, parents' involvement, and teaching aids.