Jakarta Globe, Nurfika Osman | December 01, 2010
Jakarta. Sex education will be “integrated” into Indonesian classrooms for the first time as the nation faces up to an increasing number of HIV/AIDS cases in the country, including a growing number of young women.
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| National Education Minister Muhammad Nuh, pictured on the right in this file photo, says sex education will be “integrated” into Indonesian classrooms for the first time. (Antara Photo) |
National Education Minister Muhammad Nuh said on Wednesday that the ministry intended planning to begin HIV/AIDS education for school students, whose knowledge of the dangers remained low.
He dodged a question regarding whether the lessons would include condom use.
“We are going to encourage teachers to teach their students about HIV/AIDS and how we can prevent it,” Nuh said. “We are not going to have a new subject on this matter, but this issue will be integrated into biology classes, sports classes, religion classes and sociology classes.”
Based on a Central Statistics Bureau survey in 2010, only 14.3 percent of Indonesians aged 15-24 were knowledgeable about the disease, well below the 70 percent target needed for Indonesia to achieve its Millennium Development Goals.
Nuh said that the ministry also planned to train teachers so they each had comprehensive knowledge about AIDS.
“We are planning to have training of trainers for teachers so that this is going to run effectively,” he said.
The Ministry of National Education is this year responsible for raising AIDS awareness. It has about 200 campaigns in place.
In October, Nuh launched a sex education initiative for blind and deaf children but he has previously been criticized for rejecting a proposal to include sex education in the curriculum of state schools.
In 1989, women accounted for just 2.5 percent of all people living with HIV/AIDS in the country, according to the National Commission on AIDS (KPAN). By 2009, however, they made up 25.5 percent of cases. And this number is likely to increase further as gender-based violence continues to rise.
The commission predicts HIV prevalence among Indonesians aged 15 to 49 will increase to 0.37 percent in 2014 from 0.22 percent in 2008, while the number of people with HIV/AIDS will increase to 541,700 in 2014 from 371,800 in 2010.
Nafsiah Mboi, the secretary of the commission, told the Jakarta Globe on Wednesday that the target was “too ambitious” but if the government and civil society groups worked together a 50 percent figure could be achieved by next year.
She said students should be more familiar with condoms and the use of condoms.
“Condoms shouldn’t be a taboo.”
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