Sex Education: Antidote or poison?

Nowadays, Social problems and sexual problems that are faced by our country are getting worst. Most of us worry about this unhealthy phenomenon. As a result, a lot of campaigns have been carried out by various parties including government and non-government organization (NGO) in order to prevent these social problems become more severe in the future.

In my opinion, the problems that happening in our community actually the bitter fruit plucked from a tree that grew from seeds planted decade ago. Definitely a taste of the fruit mostly determined by the quality of the seed planted. Besides that, environmental factors also strongly influence the quality of the tree.


The factors that contribute to these problems are mostly due to lack of knowledge, lack of appreciation to the belief and moral depravity as well. Because of these factors, then it emerges to the social problem such as alcohol addiction, drugs addiction and also adultery. Thus, all of these produced an outcome we are facing now such as born out of wedlock, abortion, sexually transmitted infections, HIV/AIDS and sexual violence.


Recently, Malaysia government has come out with one solution in order to cure this problems by introduce the sex education subject in the primary school.

Actually, sex education is the interesting issue to be discussed about because it covers several important aspects such as the implications of teaching this subject and the willingness of teachers to teach this subject. But, before we are going too far, it is better we know a little about sex education– what is the perspective behind the sex education?

Basically, sex education is the one field of education that includes at least five things which is biology, intellectual, emotional, social and spiritual. The aim from sex education is to form respectable and honorable men with specific changes in sexual behavior that will not harm themselves, others and society.

Based on knowledge about the holistic aspect of sexuality, skills needed to make decisions relating to aspects of sexuality can be trained to become more stable. Eventually humans choose actions and sexual behavior in harmony following nature rules.

But there is one question need to be answered in order to ensure the purpose of the sex education successfully implemented – what is the effective way to educate them to be able to choose the right path, prosperous and secure when dealing with question about sexuality?

Most studies recognized the role of morality and religion in helping young adolescents in order to make safer decisions when faced with the question of aspects of sexuality. A report released by the National Institute of Health (NIH), USA in April 2003 concluded that religious beliefs can reduce the likelihood of teenagers involved in sexual activity at the young age, through the construction of attitude and response to sexual activity.

Delivery of sex education can not be equated with the way mathematics, biology, physics, geography and history taught in schools. A student still can be taught to excel in mathematics, physics, and chemistry at school even the parents are illiterate and have no ability to mastering those subjects.

But in order to create a good human being, it should start from the proper attitude and response in the house and transformed through the healthy interaction between family members. While at school, children will be educated and trained to interact with the community with the same and different groups of gander. Social skill at the school should be given priority in order to develop the social dimension in term of sex education.

The recommendation that consider the social problem can be overcome if the sex education will be taught formally at the educational institution alone will not be achieved unless a serious effort made to improve the effectiveness of the roll of parents and families in instilling religious values and also good moral values.



In Islamic education, children should be taught about the prayer as early as possible before the age of seven years. At the same time, they should be taught about the method of ablution and also about the things that can cancel the ablution and prayer. Then, they will be introduced to new terms such as ‘menstruation’ and ‘childbirth’ that need further clarification from parents and teachers.

In facts, sex education is a part of the aspects of lifelong learning. No doubt, human sexuality changing according to the age, maturity and also health status of a person. Therefore, people must constantly learn to adapt in the changing environment.

During childhood and adolescence, the changes occur during puberty give a signal about the maturity level of the reproductive level and function. This situation should be balance with the discretion in making right decisions.

Parents should be provided with necessary skills in order to give the correct answers for each question about sex raised by their children who are in the age of curiosity. Failure to provide the correct answer will lead the child getting the wrong information. So it can reduce the confidence of the children who always exposed to the external information that might be more accurate for them.


Therefore, parents should be able to build authority and credibility, so that the children make their parents as a primary reference whenever questions arise related to sexuality. In addition, parents must be able to provide information on aspects of sexuality according to age and maturity of the children.

Sex education must necessarily include the social dimension and spiritual, where moral and religious values should be emphasized. Therefore children should be warned about the responsibility of keeping the genitals as a mandate from God.

They should be aware that the genitals should be treated as good as possible because it primary role is to reproduce and continue the human lineage. Adultery would destroy the sanctity of human relationships and also lead to more damages. So, the main challenge for the parents today is to educate their children resist toward the current influence of liberalization. Therefore, parents must provide to their children with an authentic faith, noble character, knowledge that sharpens the mind.

Come, let us start a concerted effort to improve our skills as an educator and adviser to a new generation that is able to lead and create a golden age. We do not want younger generation is weak, so easily defeated and fell by a rapacious libido.