ICYO – YOUTH INFORMATION

No 2007/76

(E - newsletter from network of Indian youth organizations)

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New Manual on Sex Education to be out by January

 

New Delhi: The controversial UNICEF-NACO manual on sex education is expected to come out with necessary changes by January 2008. The manual, however, will be put for field-testing before being distributed to the teachers for training in classrooms. The Rajya Sabha Committee of Petitions headed by M Venkaiah Naidu decided in a meeting on Thursday that National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) should work jointly with CBSE to come up with the revised manual.

 

‘‘The review of the earlier manual is being carried out and the revised module will be out by January. However, we will put it for field testing to get the feedback of teachers and parents before publishing it,’’ said NACO chief K Sujatha Rao. Views and opinions of teachers and parents will be registered on the NACO website.

 

‘‘There is a support and concern about these issues in the committee but it was felt that the manual could have been less explicit and obvious. The same issues will be addressed but the pedagogy and strategy would be different and better. We stand by the commitment that the adolescent issues need to be projected correctly but they will now be done in a subtle manner,’’ said Rao.

 

The Naidu panel seized the issue on the basis of two petitions that Rajya Sabha had received from the public in which introduction of sex education at primary and secondary level for creating awareness about HIV\AIDS was claimed to be an absolutely ill-advised step. Petitioners from Maharastra had also stated that the available literature published by UNICEF itself was not worthy of being used for teaching the students.

 

In this high profile meeting attended by CBSE chief Ashok Ganguly, joint secretary of Union ministry of human resource development (MHRD) SC Khuntia and Expressions India chief Jitendra Nagpal, it was also discussed on having only one manual for adolescent education. ‘‘It was discussed that there shouldn’t be too many manuals for adolescent education. We would work with CBSE and Expressions India to bring out the revised manual,’’ said Rao.

 

Recently, the CBSE-UNFPA manual, which had first come out in 2005, was also revised after receiving feedback from teachers. Words like masturbation, arousal and sexual intercourse were deleted besides few colourful diagrams describing the journey from puberty to young adulthood. A couple of new topics on gender sensitivity were also incorporated in the revised version, like how to enhance the respect for opposite sex, how to look at the perspective of life-skills, how to cope with the stress and the role of teachers and counsellors in preventing substance-abuse among schoolchildren.

 

This manual, monitored by NCERT and supported by the UNFPA so far, has trained around 4000 teachers in CBSEaffiliated public schools, Kendriya Vidyalayas and Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas.

 

Initially, it was designed according to various life-skill education programmes practised worldwide. Some parts of it was adapted from the controversial NACO-UNICEF’s training manual on sex education. After the recent uproar by Rashtriya Syamasevak Sangh (RSS) and the Shiksha Bachao Andolan Samiti demanding a ban on the UNICEF manual, which was introduced in schools by MHRD in 2004, a need to revise the NAEP was also felt in the ministry.

 

The UNICEF-NACO manual was introduced in state boards in 11 states, who rejected the same, calling it explicit. The petitions committee has been visiting various states including TN and AP and discussing the manual with representatives from NGOs, teachers and principals.

 

Those interested in joining the debate were asked to submit memoranda to Rajya Sabha Secretariat Joint Director J Sundrial. So far, it has received around 40,000 representatives on the matter. (Times of India)

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Youth Information is published by

Indian Committee of Youth Organizations (ICYO)

194-A, Arjun Nagar, Safdarjang Enclave

New Delhi 110029, India

Phone: 91 9811729093  / 91 11 26183978 Fax 91 11 26198423

Email: icyoindia@... / icyo@...

Web:  www.icyo.in

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Indian Committee of Youth Organizations (ICYO) is a registered non-profit, non-governmental network organization, committed in developing areas of mutual cooperation and understanding among different youth voluntary agencies, youth groups, clubs and individuals working in the field of youth welfare in India. 

ICYO functions as an umbrella organization of youth NGOs in India. It's family consists of
over 356 organizations spread in 122 districts of 22 states from different corners of India.

Our goal:
To improve and extend the youth work and services through Youth Organizations;
To enhance and demonstrate youth work in the society;
To promote effective youth programmmes;
To organize network of civil society organizations working towards the development of youth work;
To organize seminars, conferences, workshops, trainings;
To maintain international relation with organizations promoting young people in their programmes and activities

Affiliation: 

Consultative (Roster) Status with ECOSOC, United Nations;
Consultative Status with Commission on Sustainable Development;
Full Member of World Assembly of Youth (WAY); Asian Youth Council (AYC);
Youth for Habitat International Network (YFHIN); CRIN, South Asia Youth
Environment Network (SAYEN), Affiliate group of ECPAT International, Thailand;
ATSECE-DELHI, Indian Partner of AIDS Care Watch Campaign;
Steering Committee member of World Bank's YDP Network;
Working relation with Indian Association of Parliamentarians (IAPPD);
International Medical Parliamentarians Organizations (IMPO);
Asian Forum of Parliamentarians on Population and Development (AFPPD);
World Youth Foundation, Malaysia