- Office of Rep. Edcel C. Lagman
- Independent – Albay
- 20 December 2012
- 0916-6406737 / 0918-9120137
- 7.5-M ADOLESCENTS IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS
- WILL BE BENEFICIARIES OF RH EDUCATION
The mandatory age and development appropriate reproductive health education among the young as prescribed in the reconciled RH bill will initially benefit no less than 7.5-M adolescents enrolled in grade 6 and high school in public elementary and secondary schools across the country.
This figure represents the present enrollment from the data of the Department of Education (DepEd) which will even be higher once the RH education is implemented next school year.
Adolescents refer to “young people between the ages of ten (10) to nineteen (19) years who are in the transition form childhood to adulthood”, as defined in the bill.
The number of beneficiaries would even increase if RH education would start at an earlier grade than grade 6 because the period of adolescence starts at an age lower than those of 6th graders.
Since the young should not be deprived of RH education just because they are enrolled in private schools, it is expected that many private elementary and secondary schools would opt to teach reproductive health education to equally educate their pupils and students.
The RH bill mandates the DepEd to “formulate a curriculum which shall be used by public schools and may be adopted by private schools.”
Empirical studies conducted by the United Nations and countries where RH education is part of the school curriculum have documented the following beneficent results: 1) proper sexual values are inculcated in the young; 2) entry into sexual relations is delayed; 3) abstinence before marriage is encouraged; 4) multiple sexual partners are avoided; and 5) the spread of sexually transmitted infections is prevented.