SEX education will be introduced in 223 primary, preparatory and secondary schools in September as part of a new curriculum on health and family life. It is expected to be introduced in all schools by 2011.

The new curriculum will also address self-esteem, eating right, fitness, and environmental issues – the four major themes.

In grades one to three, the curriculum will be taught as an integrated subject, while for grades four to six it will be a discreet subject, meaning the students will have no required textbook, and for high schools up to grade nine, it will be taught as a subject.

“We are putting out a curriculum that will allow students to have open, free discussions on sexuality and other critical issues, and in order to do that we will be training our teachers to effectively deliver the programme,” said Christopher Graham, co-ordinator for HIV/AIDS education and family life at the Ministry of Education.

Graham, who was addressing Wednesday’s meeting of the Wolmer’s Preparatory School Parent/Teachers Association, as he attempted to garner support for the new curriculum, said he hoped the school would be one of the 73 prep schools to sign on come September.

Graham told parents that the information in the curriculum would be tailored to make it appropriate for the children. “We believe the information should be age appropriate, and that is important, so we are not going to give students information that they do not need at this time,” he said. He added that the participating schools would receive teaching aides in the form of books, charts, DVDs and DVD players, among other teaching material.

Graham said that while the Ministry of Education is the regulatory body for all schools, preparatory schools would not be coerced into accepting the curriculum.

“While they cannot coerce independent schools into offering these programmes, they can encourage them to take the programmes on,” Graham told the Woolmer’s Prep School parents.

The introduction of the curriculum comes on the heels of recent concerns that children, some at pre-school age, have been indulging in sexual activities which many teachers were not adequately trained to deal with.

Andrea Campbell, regional behaviour change co-ordinator at the Ministry of Health, told participants at a recent workshop in Kingston that the ministry had received several requests from schools to have her team’s intervention to address sexual issues.

She said that it was only recently that the ministry received a call from the principal of a prominent prep school in Kingston requesting that the health ministry’s team come in to give a talk to grades five and six students.

“The principal said she wanted us to focus the talk mainly on the issues of homosexuality because of what was happening with the grades five and six students at the school,” Campbell said.

In the meantime, Graham said the programme has been piloted in 21 schools across the island, after which a comprehensive evaluation was done and recommendations made. These recommendations, he said, were being incorporated into the curriculum.

Graham, who taught at three boys’ schools, said he could attest to some of the difficulties parents are confronted with.

“The fact that a child can be molested by an uncle but does not know she is being molested is disheartening because nobody tells her what are appropriate or inappropriate touches or areas,” he said.

“Students need to understand who they are and their bodies, so we will use charts and students will be asked to identify certain parts of the body and give the correct names,” Graham said.