CAIRO: Egypt is in the midst of yet another downgrading of sex education in public schools after the country's education ministry decided to introduce “substantial” amendments to the biology curriculum in secondary schools. According to local reports, the “amendments” are set to eliminate entire sections related to “sex education and genetics and propagation methods.” Hanan Yussif, a secondary school principal in Cairo, said the new regulations will make it “that much more difficult for students to receive the knowledge and information regarding sexual choices they will make.” She told Bikya Masr that without concrete education on sex, “Egyptian children will continue to grow up in a sheltered environment that does not allow them to become knowledgeable on the subject matter and could have devastating effects on public health, education and the family.” In Egypt, pre-marital sex is a major no-no, especially for young women. The lack of information has left a mark on society, Yussif added, saying that “without this ability to know what is best for each individual, many people can be co-opted into actions they may not have wanted, or known, to take.” An ministry source told daily Egyptian newspaper al-Youm al-Saba'a that the ministry decided to eliminate the lessons of “reproduction and propagation Methods,” which is about 10 pages, and to delete other lessons related to “the study of pollination and fertilization” and the anatomical study of the male reproductive system, and the study of semen and the female reproductive system. It also is removing a chapter on genetics from the biology curricula. The decision is being seen as another major blow to sex education advocacy, where several experts including scientists and civil organizations continue to struggle in promoting sex education amid a debate among religious scholars, and other religious and social institutions. The official pointed out that the chapter on sex education and reproductive organs of the human being currently in the biology curricula for secondary schools, shrank and became similar to the subject of science and reproductive system studied by the students of the third preparatory grade. He added that the deletion was done under the supervision of a committee of the Center for the Development of Curricula and Teaching Materials comprising experts of biology, teachers and academics, and advisors of biology curricula at the ministry and an administrative representative of Secondary Education, stressing that the Ministry of Education has sent a statement to the directorates of education as a prelude “to notify high schools to remove these subjects from the textbook and to stop teaching it to students.” The Ministry of Education justified the elimination of reproductive health and sex education from the textbook of biology, due to the direction of the Ministry “to turn these lesson into discussion activities between the teacher and the students in the classroom and bring together the latest information about it from sources other than the book of the school.” The ministry source, who declined to be named, considered that the deletion of classes on “sexual health and reproduction” is not linked to any other issue as a “population explosion” and “the increasing accident rates related to sex,” and emphasized that the deleted parts and chapters of biology textbook do not adversely affect student comprehension of the objectives of the scientific method. Mamdouh Wahba, Chairman of the Egyptian Society for Family Health, warned of the seriousness of the deletion of any parts of the curriculum relating to “reproductive health and sex,” pointing out that students “would have to be obtained from other sources may not be scientifically sound.” He added that the Egyptian Society for Family Health conducted surveys among young people nationwide and discovered that most of the young students suffer from a massive lack of information regarding “sexual life,” stressing what he called the “necessity for the authors of the curricula to comply with recommendations of the World Conference of Population, which was held in Cairo 16-years ago, and recommended giving greater information on reproductive health in the textbooks. BM
