Sex education for students and the concept of 'drawing a path for the deer to run'

Sad stories

Until now, Ms. Nguyen Thi Hong - Population Communication Department - Provincial Department of Population - Family Planning still remembers a phone call requesting consultation from a school 2 years ago. At that time, the school had just discovered that a 7th grade student was pregnant and had to drop out of school. The school wanted to organize a consultation with students about premarital sex, teenage pregnancy and provide them with basic knowledge about reproductive health.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Hong also recalled: I am a mother and my children are also in puberty, so hearing this information made me really sad. That is why, when talking to the children at school, I brought up the story of early love with them to analyze, share and hope that through it they will see the negative impacts and consequences later if they accidentally go too far. I also hope that, from these "real people, real events" stories, the children will draw their own experiences and must be conscious of preserving to avoid regrets and remorse.

Over the years, the Population Department has organized many counseling sessions on Adolescent and Youth Reproductive Health for many schools across the province. Photo: DSNA

After nearly 10 years of working as a reproductive health consultant and working with thousands of students in many schools across the province, Ms. Nguyen Thi Hong no longer seems surprised when hearing teachers share about "early love" and "early sex" among students.

Most recently, when talking to students at a high school in Quy Hop district, an 11th grade student did not hesitate to confess that "she had sex with a classmate in middle school and now she has given birth and had to drop out of school". Her late sharing made her worried, because this is no longer a reproductive health issue but also a violation of the law. Many students are not aware of the violation of the law when having sex with children under 16 years old. In this situation, she had to remind and deter, but also guide other students so that they would not make similar mistakes.

Propaganda for students in Nghia Dan district about sex education for adolescents. Photo: My Ha

Another time, when she went to counsel students at a secondary school in the mountainous district of Ky Son, she was quite surprised when the counseling content she mentioned was related to puberty in boys and girls, love in school age, andearly marriageand incestuous marriages are not supported by school leaders, because they believe it is "giving deer a way to run".

Meanwhile, for students in mountainous districts, their awareness of reproductive health issues is still very limited, lacking knowledge and they do not have many opportunities to access useful information. This explains why, in mountainous districts, where many students are ethnic minorities, the rate of students dropping out of school and the rate of students getting married early is higher than in other regions.

From this story, Ms. Nguyen Thi Hong also said that: Reproductive health is always a "sensitive" issue in schools and teachers are also hesitant to mention this story. Therefore, students lack the necessary information to equip and protect themselves, although in fact, since grade 5, these contents have been included in science subjects. In foreign countries, students are also taught about sex from a very early age and do not avoid it like many schools in Vietnam.

Equip yourself with self-protection skills

Boarding Ethnic Minority High School No. 2 has 100% boarding students. The students in the school are children of ethnic minorities, living far from home and are all in puberty. This is also the age when feelings for the opposite sex easily arise and if there is no supervision, advice, and guidance, unfortunate incidents can easily happen.

Communication on reproductive health care - prevention of child sexual abuse for students of Quy Hop district. Photo: DSNA

To ensure safety for the school environment and the dormitory environment, Mr. Nguyen Dau Truong - Principal of the school said: Sex education is organized regularly by the school and integrated into many lessons, in all extracurricular activities of the school and is also reminded by homeroom teachers regularly during class hours. In addition, we also have to strictly implement the regulations on classroom rules, dormitory rules and require students to strictly implement to at least limit the situation of early love in school and help them have the necessary knowledge to protect themselves.

At Dang Chanh Ky Secondary School (Nam Dan), teacher Nguyen Vuong Linh - Principal of the school also said: Currently, the development of social networks makes students exposed to many streams of information, including conflicting information and affects the thinking, perception and actions of school-age children. Therefore, not only high school students but also middle school students develop opposite-sex feelings very early and many students are quite open about this issue if they are not guided and reminded by their families. On the school side, for many years now, sex education has been highly valued and integrated into many activities, in flag-raising ceremonies. However, to meet the requirements, there are still many limitations because sex education is not the main expertise of teachers.

Personally, I think that to effectively propagate, it is necessary to innovate propaganda forms and diversify consulting forms to create attraction for students.

In 2023, the Provincial Department of Population and Family Planning is planning to organize 23 reproductive health counseling sessions for middle and high school students across the province. Similar sessions have been persistently implemented by the Department of Population and many other departments and sectors in coordination over the past many years. However, the number and budget are only enough to organize a few dozen sessions per year compared to the actual needs, which is still too small. Even according to the calculations of the Department of Population Communication, if the number of sessions is not increased, within 10 years, the communication work will still not be able to cover nearly 600 middle and high schools across the province.

To renew propaganda activities on adolescent and youth reproductive health, in recent years, the Population sector has also had many innovative forms of propaganda and mobilization through many competitions and meaningful playgrounds such as the Golden Bell competition, the Great Girl competition, and propaganda on the occasion of International Day of the Girl Child...

Propaganda session on violence and child abuse at Nghi Kieu Primary School (Nghi Loc). Photo: DSNA

Through these programs, we have also contributed to improving knowledge and skills in reproductive health care for adolescents and young people, promptly exchanging concerns and questions of students on issues related to reproductive health of adolescents and young people, attracting the participation of tens of thousands of students. In addition to propaganda and consultation, students also participate in answering questions and examining reproductive health of adolescents and young people.

The Population Sector has also cooperated with the Education Sector for many years to train medical staff and counselors in schools to enhance their skills in counseling and propaganda, and organize activities...