Poor sex education linked to crimes against children

HIGH levels of crime and crimes against children have a connection to poor sex education for the country’s youth, said UNAIDS country co-ordinator for Trinidad and Tobago, Izola Garcia.

Commenting on crimes against children seen in a spate in the past two weeks, Garcia said the issue has roots in a lack of education and sex education that has led to a generation of young parents with little parenting skills.
While this was not necessarily the case in the recent incidents, where three children have been killed apparently by adults close to them, Garcia said this country is now reaping the fruits of its refusal to implement proper sex education and educational reform in schools.
Garcia was speaking at a launch Wednesday of a new programme, “Outreach to Vulnerable Communities”, a pilot project that will use a voucher system to offer physical and mental health services to at-risk young people, immigrant sex workers, men who have sex with men, transgender women, drug users, the homeless, and differently-abled persons.
Garcia said “at-risk” youth can be classified as any young people who lack information on sexual and reproductive health and or lack access to that information.
Many of these vulnerable young people are the ones contributing to a teenaged pregnancy rate of 14 per cent, or one in seven births, and are caught in a cycle made worse by poverty.
“They are having children that they did not plan for and often cannot properly care for,” Garcia said.
Garcia’s call for this country to stop being “hypocritical” towards sex education was supported by executive director of the Family Planning Association of Trinidad and Tobago (FPATT), Dona Da Costa Martinez.
“At this stage, we are still debating whether sex education should be allowed in schools, which is ridiculous,” Martinez said.
“In the meantime, information is available from the youngest age at the touch of a button to our children.”
Martinez and Garcia said it is time to get over the notion that teaching children about sex will encourage them to become more sexually active.
“Sex is already in our schools,” Martinez said, adding that a “one off” lecture or the odd spare period spent talking about sex will not suffice.
“We need a sustained programme that is part of the curriculum,” Martinez said.
Garcia said this country will fail its developmental goals unless sex education is addressed and soon.
“This  generation of decision-makers is failing our children,” Garcia said.
“We are now reaping the fruits of that and living in an age where we can no longer hide anything from our children.”
The pilot project will work through 15 non-governmental organisations and will offer tailored services at FPATT’s locations in Port of Spain, San Fernando and at Tobago’s  mobile clinic.
Clients can be screened for non-communicable diseases, as well as sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), and will have access to health counselling.
Martinez reminded the public that FPATT’s services are conducted in a discreet manner within the clinic’s consultation rooms.