EDUCATION Minister Andrew Holness has reiterated that condoms will not be made available in schools, but students will continue to be educated about sexual intercourse, and negotiting skills concerning sex, including abstinence.

“We are clear… the Ministry of Education does not, and will not distribute condoms in schools,” Holness said at a press conference last week.

Responding to suggestions that condoms should be distributed in schools, as some students were already engaging in sexual intercourse, Holness dismissed this possibility, saying that condom distribution was the job of the Ministry of Health.

“We have an obligation to teach young people about… sexual intercourse and about the means of protecting themselves… and the consequences of early sexual initiation. We have an obligation, however, to teach them negotiating skills, to say ‘I am not ready’ or ‘no’. So we have an obligation to teach them about abstinence, inasmuch as we have an obligation to teach them about safe sex,” the minister said.

Holness stated further that the ministry’s position was guided by government’s policy which states that only health officials can issue prophylactics on a wide scale; the law which states that no person under 16 can consent to having sex; and stakeholders who are overwhelmingly against making condoms available in schools.

Last month, social advocate Lawman Lynch called for condoms to be made available in schools, as some students were engaging in unprotected sex.

His comments triggered a firestorm of condemnation from commentators, some of whom said he was promoting immoral behaviour in the society.

However, Lynch is not backing away from his view, and insists that condoms should be made available to students aged 16 years and older.

Lynch, who is president of the Kingston and St Andrew Action Forum Youth Organisation, said the distribution of condoms to older students was just one of a number of measures his organisation has suggested to address the problem of students having sex. Others included preaching the message of abstinence, as well as social interventions.

“I also called for social intervention and the message of abstinence, but I made it abundantly clear that there is a core set of young people with whom this message will not resonate,” Lynch told the Observer.

“What do we do? Do we turn a blind eye and leave them to be reckless, or do we cover our backs as citizens by ensuring that they have the proper tools?” he questioned.

The youth leader suggested that school guidance counsellors could use the distribution of condoms as an opportunity to talk to students about safe sex.

“It is very hypocritical to say (students) can go to the family planning board and get condoms, but you can’t get it at the schools. For eight or nine hours out of the day your child is at school, that’s where they are socialised,” Lynch added.

He said the KSAAF, a non-government social advocacy group representing 53 communities in the Corporate Area and Portmore, has established a social needs commission to examine the matter.

Meanwhile, in relation to a copy of a video of children having unprotected sex which he had in his possession, Lynch said he received it via email from someone, and that after a meeting with stakeholders, he immediately sent a copy to Assistant Commissioner of Police Les Green.

Lynch said while condoms should be available to schools at present, he hoped that a time would come when it would not be necessary to do so.