In September – December 2016, eighth and ninth graders of the secondary school of Vanator village of Nisporeni district and the Chisinau Lyceum “Spiru Haret” attended a sexual education course piloted by Y-PEER Moldova with the support of UNFPA. On December 18, the teens, together with teachers, took part in a public discussion where they stated their opinions about this course and underlined the importance and necessity of sexual education in school, IPN reports.
Y-PEER Moldova executive director Liuba Kirilov said that as result of the implementation of this initiative and of discussions with students, they reached the conclusion that young people understand what sexual education is and that it is about health, body, personality, etc. Most of the trained teens said they will recommend this course to other mates because it is welcome for their health and inspires a lot of responsibility.
“The knowledge of young people about reproductive health has improved considerably. We understood that a term is not enough for this course and more time is needed. The young people said themselves that they want to discuss more themes within the course. We also understood that this course must be very friendly to young people and must be taught by a teacher who wants to do this and feels comfortable and free to do it,” stated Liuba Kirilov.
Principal of the secondary school of Vanatori Larisa Gheorghica said such an initiative is welcome because, even if the teaching staff makes effort to explain these subjects to children, there were precedents, including unwanted pregnancies, among teenage girls. The problem has existed for many years as sexual education is taught to teens occasionally only, either at civic education classes or the classes taught by the head teacher. These subjects are often considered taboo among parents and teachers. But the course was taught by Y-PEER coordinators who are from the young generation and managed to predispose the young people to free discussions.
The sexual education course was taught to 62 students of the two institutions, once a week, from September until December. The Y-PEER coordinators said that if training starts at an early age, comprehensive sexual education helps the children and young people better understand the feelings and changes they experience and to establish safe, healthy and appropriate relations with the others. Also, if the young people do not possess truthful information about healthy relations and sex, many of them make use of the Internet and media outlets. But the information from these sources is not always correct and can sometimes pose a threat.
