Sex education should start at pre-school level

Ho, Aug. 7, GNA - Madam Comfort Esi Ablometi, Volta Regional Director, Department of Gender, has called for the introduction of sex education to children above six years in view of the rising incidence of teenage pregnancy in the country.

She said children as young as six years were being exposed to adults' content through modern technology and called for a change in 'parenting style' which considered sex education a 'taboo'.

Madam Ablometi, who was speaking to the Ghana News Agency in an interview, said sex education needed to be introduced to children as soon as they started discovering their gender and urged parents to be willing to guide them through that process.

She said a good number teenage pregnancy cases were because parents neglected the subject or misinformed their children on their reproductive health, leaving them to either investigate themselves or resort to neighbours and peers for answers.

'This will lead to trust waning between parents and children and will make the child want to know more from where he feels is a reliable source', Madam Ablometi said.

She said children needed to know the consequences of their sexual interests, and asked that preschools need to revise their curriculum to include sex education.

Madam Ablometi said many girls who fall victims to early marriages had little knowledge of reproductive health and end up with complications during childbirth.

She said puberty rights, which were initially meant to encourage virginity, and portray womanhood, was losing its significance and called for a relook at the practice.

Madam Ablometi said virgin clubs had to be discouraged because members easily become the targets of perverts.

GNA