GALE The Global Alliance for LGBT education
January 07, 2008 - A controversial UNICEF-NACO manual on sex education is expected to come out with necessary changes by January 2008. The manual, however, will be put for field-testing before being distributed to the teachers. ''The review of the earlier manual is being carried out and the revised module will be out by January. However, we will put it for field testing to get the feedback of teachers and parents before publishing it,'' said NACO chief K Sujatha Rao. Views and opinions of teachers and parents will be registered on the NACO website.
The original UNICEF-NACO manual was introduced in state boards in 11 states, who rejected the same, calling it explicit. The petitions committee has been visiting various states and discussing the manual with representatives from NGOs, teachers and principals. Those interested in joining the debate were asked to submit memoranda to Rajya Sabha Secretariat Joint Director J Sundrial. So far, it has received around 40,000 representatives on the matter.
''There is a support and concern about these issues in the committee but it was felt that the manual could have been less explicit and obvious. The same issues will be addressed but the pedagogy and strategy would be different and better. We stand by the commitment that the adolescent issues need to be projected correctly but they will now be done in a subtle manner,'' said Rao.
Recently, another manual by CBSE-UNFPA, which had first come out in 2005, was also revised after receiving feedback from teachers. Words like masturbation, arousal and sexual intercourse were deleted besides few colorful diagrams describing the journey from puberty to young adulthood. A couple of new topics on gender sensitivity were also incorporated in the revised version, like how to enhance the respect for opposite sex, how to look at the perspective of life-skills, how to cope with the stress and the role of teachers and counselors in preventing substance-abuse among schoolchildren.
This manual, monitored by NCERT and supported by the UNFPA so far, has trained around 4000 teachers in CBSE-affiliated public schools, Kendriya Vidyalayas and Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas.
Initially, the manual was designed according to various life-skill education programs used worldwide. Some parts of it were adapted from the controversial NACO-UNICEF' s training manual on sex education. After the recent uproar by Rashtriya Syamasevak Sangh (RSS) and the Shiksha Bachao Andolan Samiti demanding a ban on the UNICEF manual, which was introduced in schools by MHRD in 2004, a need to revise the NAEP was also felt in the ministry.
Sources: Times of India, ICYO - YOUTH INFORMATION No 2007/76, AIDS INDIA