Thursday, October 14, 2010

How Young is too young to be a mother?

It was after I taped "Kontroversy" that I heard this sad news. The news about a 17-year-old girl from a prestigious school that tried to perform self-abortion with pills she bought off internet at her boyfriend apartment. The girl had been 8mon pregnant. Initial reports said she was bleeding and almost unconscious when the medic found her.

That was just to confirm what I think we have to really tackling it more seriously, Sex-education.

Thairath newspaper of October 12th, 2010 just publishes a small news article about "Stop Teen Mom" seminar hosted by the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security
and the office of National Child Protection Commission. No, I am not talking about the seminar, but I am talking about the findings, the statistic the department of Social welfare provide that gathered by Information & Communication Technology Center.

Do you know That Thailand has the highest Teen Pregnancy(younger than 20 year-old) rate in Asia?

WHO(World Health Organization) published the statistic of Teen pregnancy average around the world in 2009 is 65 per 1000, while average in Asia countries in 2009 is 56 per 1000. Back in 2009, Thai number was at 70 per 1000 which was already higher than world average. And the actual number is 787,739 under 20 pregnancy mom that gave birth in the year 2009.

As of year 2010, the rate goes up to 90-100 per 1000, and it's still on the up trend. Is it time to take this issue seriously? Have we, as an adult in the country done enough to curb the number? Is his upward trend tell you anything about Thai education and social responsibility? Is it the time to start talking about Sex education in school seriously?

How Young is too Young for Sex Education?

Deputy director of the office of National Child protection Commission, Kwanwong Pikultong
(ขวัญวงศ์ พิกุลทอง) said it should start at the family, which is the most important part of child's life. And based on Study in western world, it should start as early as 2-5 year old. Now you might have initial reaction like me, WTF...yes... because that's all Thairath published, no further explanation. So I did a little research...internet these days.


I did a little research and here's what I got


From Avert, which is an international HIV and AIDS charity, based in the UK:
Sex education that works starts early, before young people reach puberty and before they have developed established patterns of behavior. However, in a review of 48 studies of comprehensive sex and STD/HIV education programmes in US schools, there was found to be strong evidence that such programmes did not increase sexual activity. Some of them reduced sexual activity, or increased rates of condom use or other contraceptives, or both. It is important to remember that young people can store up information provided at any time, for a time when they need it later on.


From The Guardian:
Brook and the Family Planning Association (FPA), the charities want to see four-year-olds start to get a grounding in the basics - like learning about the names of body parts and different types of relationships - so they feel more able to tackle the more complex aspects as they get older. But The US, where the programme comes from, has the highest teen pregnancy rates in the developed world - a third of babies born are to mothers aged 20 or less - and a frighteningly high proportion of teenagers (one in four) have sexually transmitted infections....Scary, huh?

From BBC report:
Northern Ireland has just this year made Relationships and Sexuality Education compulsory for school children from the age of five, the basics of human reproduction as part of their science lessons.
Freethorpe Primary School in Norfolk(UK) has been teaching Sex and Relationship Education since 2005. Year 2 students who are six and seven years old learn about the difference between male and females. They use laminated cards with the names of body parts including, shoulder, kidneys, vagina, penis, and arms, to learn which parts belong to both sexes or just males or females.







I don't know how young is too young to be a mother. I am not sure how early a child should be taught about sex-education. But I know one thing, THIS COUNTRY NEED TO DO SOMETHING NOW.


1 comment:

  1. Have you heard of the saying?

    "Any man can be a father, but it takes someone special to be a Daddy"

    Well the same applies to the fairer sex too.

    Education of course can help to tackle the problem, but this excuse should not absolve them of the very great responsibility of parenting (for both the father and the mother) even if that event does happen when they are young.

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