KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 10 — The Women, Family and Community Development Ministry has announced that sex education for male teenagers will be introduced next month, but it’s unclear if girls will receive the same lessons.
Utusan Online reported the ministry’s secretary-general Dr Rose Lena Lazemi as saying in Putrajaya yesterday that the National Population and Family Development Board’s (LPPKN) Male Teenagers’ Reproductive and Sexual Education Module will cover premarital sex, “sex variations”, teen pregnancies, sexual abuse, and sexually transmitted illnesses.
The sex education module will reportedly start in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Negri Sembilan, Penang and Sabah.
Utusan Online also cited Health Ministry statistics this year that showed 28.8 per cent of 13,831 teenagers aged between 10 and 19, or 3,980 girls, had children out of wedlock.
Teen pregnancies were most common in Sabah at 3,084 cases, followed by Sarawak (2,910), Selangor (1,461), Johor (1,319) and Pahang (940).
“In fact, the Family Health Development Division of the Health Ministry also reported that 18,000 pregnant teenagers had received services at government health clinics a year from 2011 to 2013,” Rose Lena was quoted saying.
“As much as 25 per cent of those cases were unmarried and on average, 1,500 teen pregnancies are recorded a month and 50 cases a day throughout the country,” she added.
Malay Mail Online reported in 2014 a government sex education module for teenagers by LPPKN, called “Modul Pekerti”, that will focus on abstinence.
A survey on youths’ sexual and reproductive health by Durex and Perspective Strategies released last May found that the government’s abstinence-based sex education has failed to help raise awareness of safe sex among a majority of young people.
