<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The National Statistics Institute has as of late made
\npublic a series of worrying data. Accordingly, of the reported 200,000 births
\nin 2019, more than 700 have placed girls younger than 15 center-stage. Almost
\n18,000 of those births have been by mothers aged 15 to 19. Under
\nthe circumstances, at the level of the European Union, nearly a quarter, 23 per
\ncent, of the underage mothers are from Romania. Such statistics should not come
\nas a surprise, though. They confirm the occurrence of a plight the Romanian
\nsociety has had to face for quite some time now. One of the causes of that
\nplight is the lack of sexual education, even though it has been included in an
\noptional course labeled Education for health. The course has been taught for
\nmany years now, as early as the 1st grade. Optional courses are
\ntaught by teachers, but in certain cases such courses are taught by specialists
\nworking for several non-governmental organizations, NGOs. Youngsters for
\nyoungsters is one such organization. For almost 30 years now, Youngsters for Youngsters
\nhas been involved in promoting education for health among the pupils of
\nRomania. Adina Manea is the president of Youngsters for Youngsters.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Adina Manea:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
If we speak about the programs run by ‘Youngsters for Youngsters’ , we work with high school pupils for the clear
\nreason that we need to cover such a shortage in our national education system.
\nIn high school, at the age of 15, 16, 17 or thereabouts, statistics at national
\nlevel has revealed that for many years now that is the age when adolescents
\nbegin their sex life, so it is important for them to know all these things
\nbefore they start having sex. But we also speak to them about self-knowledge
\nand communication, we speak about values, about decisions, about responsible
\npatterns of behavior, about how we communicate…Then we broach the issue of
\ncontraception and obviously, the HIV prevention and what happens with the
\nAIDS-related issues.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The law has taken effect since 2014, yet the number of
\nthose who took that Educ Health, Education for Health, course is still very
\nlimited. For instance, in 2019, a mere 140,000 pupils, that is 4.6% of the
\nnumber of pupils all told, registered for the course. And also in 2019, an
\ninitiative to change Law 272 of 2004 on the protection and promotion of child’s
\nrights was presented before Parliament. By and large, changes pertain to
\nreplacing the notion of sexual education with that of sanitary education..
\nThe prospective changes to the law also stipulate that the parents’ and the
\nchildren’s legal representative’s consent be mandatory, so that schools can run
\nsanitary education programs. Both these changes are in no way auspicious, or at
\nleast that’s what some of the civil society representatives believe. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Adina Manea:<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Introducing such a phrase, ‘the
\nparents’ mandatory consent’ in a child law is an issue of overregulation. The
\nEducation Ministry, for everything happening in school, has specific
\nmethodologies regulating everything. Both the curriculum pertaining to the core
\nstuff, that is the mandatory disciplines, and the optional ones, such as the
\nEduc Health. This optional Education-for-health course is taught by members of
\nthe teaching staff, it is not being taught by people from outside the system.
\nYet at the same time, school are entitled to carry their own protocols with
\nnon-governmental organizations they check, they know and which they trust. All
\nthat entails the parents’ consent since nobody from outside the school can
\nteach there without the parents’ consent. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Adina Manea, alongside other representatives of the
\ncivil society, also shares the opinion that the label sanitary education has no longer been in use
\nin Romanian for quite a long time now. Yet there’s more to it than that. The
\ncourses and activities Youngsters for youngsters run in schools are not
\nlimited to the basics of reproduction alone, they tackle such topics as
\npregnancy and infection prevention, these are pieces of information that could
\nalso be useful for the parents. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Adina Manea:<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
According to statistics, we can see
\nthat in Romania, the adults, that is children’s or pupils’ parents, could
\nbenefit from such courses as they do not know enough information they can dispatch
\nto their children. A possible hindrance of that is the fact that such kind of
\neducation is basically run the family. Which is fine! It should be done in the
\nfamily quite all right! But there where the family doesn’t know how to do that,
\nis unable to do it or simply doesn’t exist, what are we supposed to do? <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
But there where the family does exist and gets involved
\nin the pupil’s life, what is the parents’ take on this issue, that of replacing
\nsexual education with another phrase, sanitary education ?Iulian Cristache is the
\npresident of the Parents’ Association Federation.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Iulian Cristache:<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
It is true that such a label has
\nprompted parents to be reluctant, which includes us, the Parents’ Association
\nFederation, sharing the belief that it would better to speak about education
\nfor health which should indeed included a sexual education module. No doubt
\nabout it, sexual education must be there, yet it should be taught, of course,
\naccording to the pupil’s age. Teaching sexual education in primary school is
\none thing, doing that for the middle school is something different, while
\nteaching it in high-school is a totally different thing. But all things
\nconsidered, we definitely need sexual education because we have a lot of girl
\nchildren with children. Sadly we are at the top of the table in Europe as
\nregards this chapter as well and we really need that kind of education.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
As for the legislative change initiative, the Parents’ Association Federation has not been invited to take part in consultations. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Iulian Cristache:<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
We haven’t been co-opted. I
\npurposefully turned up for the parliamentary commission, so we were there. Our
\ntake on that is known, we sent a written version of it and we had press
\nreleases of that. They didn’t want us there but we did go there, still. You
\nknow what they say; If you don’t want us, we want you.. We only did our duty,
\nfrom this point of view. All thigs considered, it’s true there is some sort of
\nreluctance to that, since there are a great many parents who deem sexual
\neducation a taboo topic, which is in no way normal.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
According to the Parents’ Association Federation, the
\ncurrent Education-for-health optional course ought to be encouraged to a much
\ngreater extent. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Iulian Cristache:<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, if parents are not
\ninformed about that and if the principal continues to view the optional courses
\nsimply as a means to add up to the teaching load for part of the staff, then
\nthere’s nothing we can do about it. The key prerequisite is to consider, when
\nit comes to education for health, taking that sexual education module. We have
\nexamined the curriculum, and saw it was very well adapted to suit the current
\nneeds. So I don’t think changes that still need to be made are substantial any
\nmore. And speaking about the new project, yes, the teaching staff should indeed
\ninclude professionals capable of teaching these things. There are the Biology
\nteachers, but there should also be trained nurses, there should also be
\nphysicians from the family planning offices. We do need professionals, so much
\nso that information should be correctly dispatched without however being
\ndistorted. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
At present, the initiative to change Law 272 of 2004
\nhas been again sent to Parliament. We recall the President has refused to
\npromulgate it. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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