REPORT OF A SURVEY Social Issues Sex education

Title Sex Education in Malaysia

Introduction During the past few decades there has been a continuing debate about whether the increase in sex education in schools encourages teenagers to experiment with sexual activities. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to find out students viewpoints regarding whether sex education should be

implemented in schools.

Literature review

Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abd Jalil conducted a survey (2004) on 1,700 young adults aged between 13 and 24 revealed that more than 50% of the respondents did not know in detail about the functions of reproductive organs. According to Burns (2007) 85% of teenagers in the U.S are sexually active, therefore

teenagers need to know regarding the consequence and results of engaging in this kind of activities.

Besides that, LPPKN director-general, Datuk Aminah Abdul Rahman, said that findings of studies carried out by countries that have implemented sex education like the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway and the United States have shown that sex education to teenagers lead to a delay in sexual initiation, promotes abstinence, prevents sexually-transmitted infections and unwanted pregnancies. Therefore, it would be the right decision if sex education is implemented in schools.

Objectives From the literature review, there are 3 objectives that we would like to find out. The objectives of this study are: To find out about the PPISMP semester 3 students opinions on sex education in Malaysia. To find out whether sex education would bring more harm than good to the teenagers in Malaysia. To find out whether exposing teenagers to sex education should be done by parents, teachers or both.

Methodology We had chosen a topic based on social issues regarding sex education in Malaysia. The survey used questionnaire as an instrument. The respondents are students from PPISMP semester 3 consisting male and female peers, aged between 19 to 21 years old. From the objectives, 11 items were conducted. 3 items were constructed to find out about objective 1 on the opinions of the students about sex education in Malaysia. 4 items were constructed based on objective 2 which are to find out about the students opinions on sex education, whether it would bring more harm or good to the teens. Lastly, 4 items were constructed based on objective 3 which are to find out whether exposing teens to sex education should be done by parents, teachers or both. After the questionnaires were done, they were distributed to 30 respondents. The questionnaires were then collated and analysed. The responses were counted and tabulated in order to arrange it.

Strongly Agree Item 1 Item 2 Item 3 Item 4 Item 5 Item 6 Item 7 Item 8 Item 9 Item 10 Item11 9 3 6 9 9 17 7 7 5 2 17

Agree 19 15 18 6 12 12 13 10 14 12 8 Table 1

Disagree 2 8 1 12 9 1 8 10 8 15 2

Strongly Disagree 4 1 3 2 3 3 1 3

Total respondents

30

35

Number of Students Agree and Disagree in the Survey

30

25

20 Agree 15 Disagree

10

0 Item 1 Item 2 Item 3 Item 4 Item 5 Item 6 Item 7 Item 8 Item 9 Item 10Item 11

Bar graph 1

Pie Chart of The Survey

6% 25%

27% STRONGLY AGREE AGREE DISAGREE 42% STRONGLY DISAGREE

Pie Chart 1

Pie Chart of Overall Result of The Survey

31% AGREE DISAGREE 69%

Pie Chart 2

Findings Based on the responses tabulated, below are the findings from the survey that we had conducted:

For item 1, 93.3% agrees and 6.7% disagrees that sex education is a long debated issue that was never solved.
Item 2 showed that 60% agrees that sex education is unimportant

while 40% disagrees with it.

80% agrees that sex is not normally spoken in the family especially in Asia. Item 4 represents 50% of the respondents agree and 50% disagrees. For item 5, 70% agrees while 30% disagrees that sex education could reduce social problems regarding sex. 96.7% agrees and 3.3% disagrees with the statement in item 6.

For item 7, 66.6% agrees while 33.4% disagrees that teens were taught about the rights regarding sexual activities and responsibilities through sex education.

Item 8 showed that 56.6% agrees that sex education should start from

home.

Item 9 showed that 73.3% agrees that parents are the most suitable people to discuss about a topic like sex with teens.

53.3% agrees that sex education should be conducted by teachers while the rest disagrees in item 10.

For item 11, 16.2% disagrees that teens are always curious.

Discussion After the responses were tabulated, we found out that 60% of the respondents agree that sex education in Malaysia is unimportant as teenagers would continue to have unsafe sex. However, our findings and what Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil (2010), Minister of Women, Family and Community

Development said are different. She claimed that it is absolutely crucial to introduce sexual reproductive health education in schools. Probably the point of view as teenagers differ from people who are elder. 96.7% of the respondents agree that sex education should be handled with care as it might be misunderstood if wrongly imparted. Therefore, the Education Ministry (1992) decided not to use the term sex education for the subject on sex as it can be misconstrued by the public. It would be known as family health education instead. GIVE SOME EXPLANATIONS From the overall review, 69% of the respondents agree with the items designed with regards to sex education and that it should be taught in schools. According to LPPKN director-general, Datuk Aminah Abdul Rahman, findings of studies carried out by countries that have implemented sex education like the

Netherlands, Sweden, Norway and the United States have shown that sex education to teenagers lead to a delay in sexual initiation, promotes abstinence, prevents sexually-transmitted infections and unwanted pregnancies. Therefore, it would be the right decision if sex education is implemented in schools. Besides that, the report of the analysis shows that 46.7% agrees that sex education should be done by teachers since the information being conveyed should rely on the latest scientific knowledge about sexuality and sexual health. Therefore, it concurs with the statement made by Cory Silverberg (2007).

Teachers would be given guidelines on how to approach subjects on sexuality, said the National Unity and Social Development Ministry (2003). This concurs with item 10 that we had conducted regarding teachers are the suitable agent to conduct sex education.

On the other hand, 56.6% of the respondents agree that sex education should be done by parents instead of teachers as it is a sensitive issue. Probably, the respondents are teachers-to-be and they are afraid they might be sued by the parents if they were to make mistakes in imparting the knowledge of sex to the pupils.

From the literature review, the purpose of sex education is to try and teach teenagers the important and correct information that they are not getting elsewhere. It is true that teenagers continue to have sex and many of them even continue to have unsafe sex. Therefore, the real question that we need to solve now is to implement sex education in schools or not.

Conclusion

From the survey, 69% of the students agree that sex education should be implemented in schools. It shows that the teenagers are aware of the social issues happening regarding to sexual activities among teens. In conclusion, rather than being seen as an encouragement to teenagers, sex education to be implemented in the syllabus is better viewed as the key to help teenagers to develop a more responsible and informed attitude to a physical activity that they will naturally be intrigued by and wish to experiment with during their teen years.

(1156 words)

REFERENCES Newspaper Article Aniza Damis. (2010, July 25). [Review of Pushing ahead with sex education]. New Straits Times. Retrieved from http://www.nst.com.my/nst/articles/25sexyed2/Article/ Tan Ee Loo and Kang Soon Cheng. (2010, August 8). Keeping The Sex Offenders At Bay. The Star. pp E10-E11. (2010, July 18). [Review of Long-term affair]. The Star. Retrieved from http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/7/18/nation/6687598&sec=natio n

Website Cory Silverberg. (2007, April 7). What is Good Sex Education?. Retrieved from http://sexuality.about.com/od/seekingsexualhelp/p/sex_education.htm

Michelle Wilkinson. Sex education: At school, at home or both?. Retrieved from http://www.helium.com/items/1383661-sex-education-at-school-at-home-orboth