Karnataka rules out sex education in schools

Karnataka has categorically ruled out the possibility of introducing sex education for students of class VI to XII from the coming academic year.

Speaking to reporters in Bangalore, Karnataka’s Minister for Primary and Secondary Education Basavaraj Horatti said sex education manuals prescribed by National Council for Education Research and Training (NCERT) were “completely unfit” for young children and there was no question of Karnataka introducing the subject at secondary school level.

Horatti was reacting to the controversy kicked up in the wake of Federal Government’s initiative to introduce sex education with NCERT and National AIDS Control Organization preparing a syllabus to provide sex education to children between classes six and twelve. “Sex education could not be taught in the name of AIDS control”, he said.

Horatti said he would soon convene a meeting of women’s organizations and non-governmental organizations involved in AIDS control to discuss the issue. The Minister has also made it clear that the sex education manuals will not be issued even to the CBSE and ICSE schools in Karnataka.

The sex education programme titled “Comprehensive School Programme and Adolescence Education” has proposed to teach students puberty and sexuality among other things. The move to introduce sex education had been proposed by the UNICEF as a measure to prevent AIDS in the Third World countries.

But, several women’s and religious organizations have taken serious exception to the gross graphic and pictorial descriptions in the course material and objected to its introduction in the schools.

The Jamaat-E-Islami Hind and its student outfit – Students Islamic Organization (SIO) have already held protests in different parts of Karnataka opposing introduction of sex education in schools. In a press statement, SIO, Karnataka, said vested interests were trying to dirty the minds of innocent children on the pretext of controlling AIDS.