SEX education should be taught in schools as it enhances their life skills, said Baguio Center for Young Adults (BCYA) director Marlene de Castro.
De Castro agreed to the recent move of the Department of Health (DOH) and the Department of Education (DepEd) to include sex education in the curriculum of grade and high school students.
"The teaching of values, respect, and responsibility towards oneself should be reinforced in schools as most of the problems arising from premarital sex always start when sex education is not being taught," de Castro said.
"Sex education does not teach sexual intercourse or being promiscuous because we are also against these [behaviors]," de Castro added.
Among cases the BCYA has handled recently were children as young as 12 years old and first year high school students, which according to her, are causes for alarm.
"We should teach these young ones how to say 'no' to premarital sex as sometimes peer pressure from their community often lead them to [cave in]," she stressed.
Moreover, they have been receiving young cases of walk-in patients at BCYA that signifies a growing change of lifestyle of teenagers, which exposes them to the risk of sexually transmitted infections, unwanted pregnancies and eventually abortion.
"Instead of criticizing sex education, parties should sit together in a dialogue which would further the causes of the youth that often are at risk due to lack of guidance," De Castro said.
She added the BCYA is open for family planning talks with counseling on young partners so they will not be led astray by the influence of the community.
Meanwhile, on June 18, a dialogue between the Catholics Bishops Conference of the Philippines and the Department of Education will be conducted to further discuss the inclusion of sex education in the curriculum of elementary students, DepEd Secretary Mona Valisno said Saturday.