Improved sex education necessary to curb teenage pregnancy

As Guyana battles with a high rate of teenage pregnancy, the head of a leading reproductive health agency is calling for safe sex and contraception to be taught in schools.

Recently, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) disclosed that Guyana has the second highest rate of adolescent pregnancy in both the Caribbean and South America. It is estimated that 96 out of every 1000 girls between the ages of 15 and 19 give birth, according to the State of the World Population 2013 Report. With a rate of 97 per 1000 adolescents getting pregnant, Guyana lags behind only The Dominican Republic with a rate of 98 per 1000 teens in the Caribbean, and Ecuador in South America with 100 of every 1000 teen girls.

Reacting to the news, Guyana Responsible Parenthood Association (GRPA) Executive Director Patricia Sheerrattan-Bisnauth said lack of information or misinformation was a key contributory factor.

According to Sheerrattan-Bisnauth, the Education Ministry, in collaboration with the Health Ministry, needs to make its sex education programme in schools more realistic.

The sex education programme focuses primarily on abstinence, and fails to include safe sex and contraception. “We ought to be more realistic,” she posited.

According to the GRPA executive director, teenagers are having sexual intercourse at an earlier age today, compared to this age group years ago, hence, while authorities prefer teenagers to abstain, this was not necessarily the case.  To combat the situation, she said the Education Ministry, in particular, needed to change the conversation about sex, discussing it in a “healthy and wholesome way”.

Parents need to be educated as well, she said, noting that teenagers turn to the Internet and peers in search of answers when parents fail to effectively inform them. Poverty was also listed among the contributing factors by Sheerrattan-Bisnauth, who explained that teenagers get into sexual relations at times in exchange for financial gains. This aspect, she said, must not go unnoticed.

Illiteracy

Family Commission Chairman, Dr Kwame Gilbert has cited illiteracy as one of the leading causes of the high rate of teenage pregnancy in Guyana. Reverend Gilbert said there were a number of contributing factors responsible for the current trend, but illiteracy stands out.

He explained that a population with more literate individuals would make better choices, thereby decreasing the number of teenage mothers.

It was pointed out that while core subjects such as social studies, mathematics and English are key, emphasis must also be placed on maintaining and instilling values that will positively influence the lives of children.

HIV infections

Meanwhile, with regard to upgrading the sex education programme, Culture, Youth and Sport Minister Dr Frank Anthony had said a resort to the distribution of condoms in high schools was being mulled across the region, even if at this point it was just tangential.  He made the remarks at a CARICOM Council for Human and Social Development (COSHOD) Special Meeting on youth held in Guyana last year.

Dr Anthony, who had chaired the meeting, reported that this move was being mulled as a result of the worrying new trend in the region when it comes to the HIV/AIDS epidemic.