The Methodist Church in Fiji says any type of sex education taught in schools should be conveyed from a moral perspective. Speaking in response to questions raised by the Fiji Times newspaper about explicit sex education for Year 7 and Year 8 students, the church’s secretary for education, Waisake Ravatu, said they were already aware Read more
Some Secondary school principals have been left feeling uneasy after Family Planning presented a session called Taming Terrifying Topics at the Physical Education NZ 2015 conference in Hamilton on Monday. The subtitle for the session was “teaching pleasure within your sexuality education programme.” At the conference teachers were shown pamphlets that said sex talks should Read more
Parliamentarians from five Pacific nations met in Wellington on 29 June to consider how better to involve boys and men in sexual and reproductive health in the Pacific. Presenters at the hearing included the United Nations Population Fund (UNPFA), International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), the Tonga Family Health Association, the Kiribati Health Association, and a male Read more
Senior academics at the University of Otago have called for a free contraceptive programme to be made available to teens before they become sexually active. In an article in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Dr Neil Pickering and Dr Lynley Anderson from the university’s Bioethics Centre and Dr Helen Paterson from its Department Read more
A Catholic education leader is sounding a note of warning after an experiment in giving condoms to teens in a college was hailed as a success. The chief executive of the New Zealand Catholic Education Office, Br Sir Patrick Lynch, spoke about an experiment at James Cook High School in south Auckland. Condoms were given Read more
New guidelines for sex education will be released in a few weeks, but the Government will shy away from ordering schools to teach more than basic biology. The Ministry of Education is due to release the new blueprint in December, nine months after an advisory panel recommended teens be taught respectful attitudes as a core Read more
You’ve probably heard the stereotype: Catholic colleges are in denial about their students’ sexual lives and alcohol use. Indeed, it’s true that many Catholic universities traditionally ended the conversations on sex and underage drinking with a simple, “just say no!” And yet, students attending Catholic colleges do not differ from students at other colleges, with Read more
Parliament’s health select committee has recommended that sex education in schools should include more than a narrow focus on the physical mechanics of sex and reproduction. A Herald-DigiPoll survey shows the there is support for this recommendation. Three-quarters believed that high-school pupils needed to be taught more than the mechanics of sex. The Prime Minister, Read more
Teachers of students as young as 5 will soon have access to new sexuality education guidelines addressing issues such as identity and relationships. The guidelines commissioned by Family Planning are designed to help teachers of students in Years 1 to 4, and will cover body parts and differences between boys and girls – but not Read more
Sex education is promoting sexual behaviour among young people and not showing all the risks, a new report claims. The report, released today, concludes that the overall message to young people is that sex is okay as long as you use a condom. But schools and sex education providers say the report – commissioned by Read more