Start lessons on the birds and bees early

Sun2Surf: SUBANG JAYA: Early sex education can help prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS, unwanted pregnancy and abortions especially among young girls.
Malaysian Federation of Family Planning Associations chairman Dr Kamaruzaman Ali said there is thus a need for the Education Ministry to replan primary and secondary school curriculums to introduce sex education at an earlier age and emphasise more on sex education.
He said if possible the ministry should make sex education a stand alone subject.
"In Hongkong, children start learning sex education from the age of three or four," he said at the close of the 3rd Asia Pacific Conference on Reproductive and Sexual Health (APCRSH).
Kamaruzaman, who is the APCRSH local organising committee chairman, said children should start knowing about sex early, but it should be implemented or taught according to the level of their understanding.
He said teachers need also be retrained to effectively impart information to students.
Asked to comment on the Durex sex survey this year which shows 39% of Malaysians practise unprotected sex, he said:
"The point of survey is that youngsters should not be ignorant and need to be given the knowledge that it is dangerous to have unprotected sex."
Kamaruzaman said parents should also understand that "to teach their children sex education at a young age is not teaching them to have sex early."
Last week, Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil said she would meet Education Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein to make sex education a compulsory subject in schools next year.