Schools should undergo external audits to ensure sexual health education was imparted in line with the national minimum curriculum, the Malta Personal and Social Development Association said.
“Any schools not in line with the national minimum curriculum’s learning outcomes should seriously reconsider their implementation and practices of PSD and external audit reviews should address this specifically,” association president Amanda Caruana said.
The National Sexual Health Policy, launched two weeks ago, pointed out the “scanty and uncoordinated” sexual education in schools. The study quoted a recent research of Roderick Bugeja who pointed out there were some schools in Malta where PSD was not being taught in Forms 3 to 5.
The policy spoke about a widespread lack of preparedness and effective technical skills by teachers to discuss sexual issues with students during PSD classes, lack of professional educational resources for teachers and lack of standards and coordination by teachers of different subjects in addressing sexual health.
It highlighted an urgent need for more research and monitoring of educational practices to ensure standards were set and maintained in terms of teaching methods, content and timing of lessons.
While agreeing on the need to audit schools and that educators throughout the school should work together for a coordinated sexual education, Ms Caruana said “one cannot generalise so categorically by stating that PSD teachers lack preparedness”.
She pointed out PSD teachers were trained to teach sexual health education throughout their initial training, both on a personal growth level and on a pedagogical level.
More emphasis should be laid on providing teachers with continued professional development, she said.
Ms Caruana quoted another study, carried out in 2006, in which students perceived sexuality education at school as a useful subject to acquire skills and develop their values.
“When dealing with such a topic, students always want to have more knowledge, so, ideally, PSD teachers should have more time than is presently available... to tackle several aspects of sexual health education. It is important to point out that in PSD there is a priority on immediacy issues...” she said.
The sexual health policy, which has been in the pipeline for 11 years, will serve as a stepping stone for the drafting of the strategy. The government said it would start drafting the strategy by February.
Last week, GU Clinic head Philip Carabot stressed that the sex education review should be given priority in the implementation of the sexual health strategy and should not be stifled by controversy.
A controversy erupted early last month when Gozo Bishop Mario Grech said the educational system could be abusing students if “instead of helping them control their sexual energy, it offers them information and methods, such as contraceptives, inducing them to give in to the culture of pleasure”.
Mgr Grech later clarified his comments and said they should not be taken to mean he was against sexual education but only that it should be put in its proper context, or a holistic approach, which included the ethical dimension.
In a recent pastoral letter, the Maltese Bishops said any teaching on sexuality should address the respect and love between spouses before tackling the physical aspect.