GEORGE TOWN: The Ministry of Education (MOE) has urged schools not to take sex education lightly in efforts to tackle sexual crime against children.
Deputy Education Minister Teo Nie Ching said sex education was currently being taught at the pre-school until secondary school level as one of the elements under Pendidikan Jasmani dan Pendidikan Kesihatan (PJPK) or Physical Education and Health Education.
“Malaysia has become a hotspot for sexual crime against children, so we must teach our children from a young age how to prevent it.
“I hope schools don’t treat PJPK as an unimportant subject and replace it with Mathematics or English class. Please don’t do that.
“Sex education is still a taboo subject in Malaysian society, so it is not named in the school subject, instead included in PJPK,” she told reporters during her working visit to Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Tamil Subramaniya Barathee in Gelugor here yesterday.
Teo said the government was viewing this matter seriously and in fact, last month she had a meeting with Women, Family and Community Development Deputy Minister Hannah Yeoh, the National Population and Family Development Board (LPPKN) and several non-governmental organisations (NGO) to look into methods to update the syllabus.
“Our children nowadays get information from social media, YouTube… so it is important that schools are teaching students the proper and right thing with up-to-date information,” she said, adding that the sex education syllabus would be reviewed from time to time.
She said currently, pre-school children were being taught to say “NO” and to differentiate between safe and unsafe touch.
“We are teaching them how to differentiate ‘sentuhan selamat (safe touch) from ‘sentuhan tidak selamat’ (unsafe touch) and ‘sentuhan selesa’ (comfortable touch) from ‘sentuhan tidak selesa’ (uncomfortable touch) to prevent sexual harassment,” she said.
Teo said the secondary school teaching method would be more complicated and schools were encouraged to separate the boys and girls into two groups in order for them to discuss the topic more freely.
“However, parents’ support is needed in this matter to ensure their children get a better understanding of the subject.
“The syllabus and teaching material on the subject will be made available to all parents and they are encouraged to use it as well,” she said. – Bernama
