Marlon Ramos of the Philippine Daily Inquirer mentioned in his February 27, 2008 article “Alarming Rise in Teenage Pregnancies Noted” that almost 8 percent of 1.7 million babies born in 2004 “were born to mothers aged 15 to 19.”
A TV program in ABS-CBN also recently tackled this trend and featured young men who have already sired their firstborns. Among those interviewed was a man aged 15 who is forced to work in a fishing port at a daily wage of 300 pesos (roughly US$6.25) in order to feed his live-in partner and their new-born daughter. Asked whether he knew the consequence of having sex, he regretfully said, “It is easy to do that sex thing but once the baby is there…you then realize it is difficult."
In a fairly conservative country where a majority of the population is Catholic, it may seem ironical that its younger generation seems sexually adventurous. Are they really more adventurous when compared with their counterparts in other countries? Or is it really a question of lack of sex education and counseling?
Sex Talk is Not the Norm
Young people interviewed for this article generally feel that educators and even their parents avoid the topic of sex. What they know about sex is what they hear from peers, read from magazines or watch in DVDs. They say that it is very seldom that they can openly talk about sex with their parents or teachers.
Granted that some of them may know the consequence of having unprotected sex, it still leaves doubt whether they are emotionally strong enough to resist the temptations of the pleasures associated with it.
Not Just Sex Education but Counseling
That is why it is very important to inject serious counseling side by side with sex education. It is one thing to know the biological and science aspect of having babies, it is entirely another matter to really understand the meaning and responsibilities of parenthood.
If there is a module on sex education that will show a documentary, for instance, of a teenage parent who is forced to quit school and work as a laborer on a 300/day wage, then it can be a more effective deterrent rather than explaining the A to Z of the human reproductive system. In school, these young people at certain age groups or grade level can have workshops where they can be encouraged to talk freely about sex. There should also be face-to-face counseling sessions with sex educators who can meaningfully mentor them about the real consequence of unwanted or teenage pregnancies.
Out-of-School Youth Face Higher Risk
If schools can have this kind of sex education and counseling practices, what about the need of young people who cannot attend school due to poverty? It may seem appropriate to assume that this sector needs more focus.
For one, they have more free time for social interaction and consequently, more chances at sexual encounters. Secondly, most of them live in depressed communities and are therefore situated in families where parents are more focused on how to earn a living rather than on giving their children counseling about sex. Worse, their parents could be siring more children than what they can really afford. Thus, children in these families may tend to think like their parents, i.e., having more children mean getting more “blessings.”
It is therefore also crucial to have both meaningful sex education and direct counseling in both formal and non-formal education systems. Schools can easily adopt a more relevant curriculum while local governments (i.e. barangays) can implement sex counseling programs directed towards the youth especially those who have no access to formal education.
