Lack of Sex Education Puts Indonesia Children at Risk: Experts

Jakarta Globe, Dessy Sagita & Shari Nijman | December 10, 2010

Jakarta. There are very serious consequences that could result from Indonesian society’s continued reluctance to acknowledge that children need to learn about sex early on at home and in schools, experts warned on Friday.

There are very serious consequences that could result
from Indonesian society’s continued reluctance to
acknowledge that children need to learn about sex early
on at home and in schools, experts warned on Friday.
(Antara Photo)

For instance, Oldri Shearli Mukuan, an activist from the HIV-Positive Indonesian Women’s Association, said that when she had her first period, her mother warned her to be careful but did not explain how or why.

“By the time I was 16, I was a heroin addict and the victim of frequent sexual abuse by my boyfriend, who was also an addict,” she said at an Atma Jaya Catholic University seminar about sexual education for teenagers.

If she had been armed with proper information about sex and drugs and their consequences, she said, she probably would have made better choices.

The problem, according to Irwandi, a psychology professor at Atma Jaya Catholic University, is there is hardly any place children or teenagers can go to receive proper information.

Ideally, he said, schools should be the most trusted and neutral institution where sex is discussed. But most education institutions either shy away from the topic or don’t provide comprehensive information.

In the early 1990s, he said, he tried to include sex education in the schools curriculum, but an official from the Ministry of Health said he could never mention the word “condom” in class.

“He said I would have to go over his dead body before I could mention the word ‘condom’ at school,” he said.

Irwandi acknowledged the Indonesian education system has changed a lot since then, but limitations still exist because schools mostly talk about chastity instead of the real concept of sex.

“Children at most Indonesian schools are overprotected,” he said.

Nia Dinata, a prominent film director and producer who spoke at the seminar, said she had problems teaching her teenage son about sex because his school only provided him information about reproductive organs.

“I once asked my son if he knew what sex was, and he said according to school, sex was gender,” she said, adding that very few schools include comprehensive information about sex in their curriculum.

Dhita Wijaya, 19, a psychology student at Atma Jaya Catholic University, said she learned about sex in her high school but mainly about abortion.

“My school arranged some sex education, but they just pointed out the risks of having an abortion. They make us afraid of having an abortion, but they don’t talk to us about how to prevent it,” she said.

To address the low awareness among Indonesian teenagers of HIV/AIDS — just 14.3 percent, according to a Central Statistics Bureau survey in 2010 — National Education Minister Muhammad Nuh said the ministry intended to begin HIV/AIDS education for school students.

However, he dodged a question about whether the lessons would include condom use.

Irwandi said schools and universities should take more proactive roles in providing honest and open information about sex and reproduction, because other media would not hesitate to bombard children with information about sex, complete with more interesting graphics and audio, without considering the risks it posed.

If not from unfiltered media, children would learn from their peers, who often hardly know any better, he said.

When should children be taught? For psychology major Edward Samuel, 19, it should be sooner rather than later.

“For me, my first sex education was in junior high school, and I think that’s very, very late,” he said.

“It would be better if they started it in kindergarten or elementary school. I think it’s too late if they get it in junior high school.”