Sexual Education has been, for lack of a better term, lacking in curriculum. Inadequate sexual education has been a huge problem in schools for decades. The curriculum does not leave students with a competent understanding of sexual health and safety. The curriculum tiptoes around the important topics and leaves students with as much information as they had when they started.
In a study taken in an Ontario school, it showed that students finished sexual education unable to describe important components of sexual health. These included poor understandings of reproductive physiology, HIV/AIDS, contraceptives, sexual assault, and the age of consent in Canada (Maya M Kumar, MD, Rodrick Lim, MD, Cindy Langford, RN, Jamie A Seabrook, MA, Kathy N Speechley, PhD, Timothy Lynch, MD,2013). Students who have attended both public schools and catholic schools throughout Canada have reported feeling that their sexual education was not enough for them to feel prepared. When students feel unprepared in a subject as important as this, it can create serious harm for the future. It can create a spike in teenage pregnancy, an increase in STIs, and more.
The next logical step would be to include these into the curriculum. Unfortunately, curriculum is not able to be changed that easily. There are many steps required to create more adequate sexual education in schools. Implementing a change to the curriculum countrywide will require planning, support, and more.
(Maya M Kumar, MD, Rodrick Lim, MD, Cindy Langford, RN, Jamie A Seabrook, MA, Kathy N Speechley, PhD, Timothy Lynch, MD, Sexual knowledge of Canadian adolescents after completion of high school sexual education requirements, Paediatrics & Child Health, Volume 18, Issue 2, February 2013, Pages 74–80, https://doi.org/10.1093/pch/18.2.74).
Hi Laina,
I’m glad to see your interest in this topic as I agree, Sexual Education is not dealt with and taught correctly in schools. Some children can learn about Sexual Education from their parents at home, as other students don’t have that opportunity, that being said, they enter their teenage/young adult years not knowing anything about the topic. I’m looking forward to hearing about your findings and possible solutions!
As a non born Canadian, I have also wondered why we don’t learn much about sexuality in schools and why it’s excluded from the curriculum. My one question would be: what would be your approach to include sexuality into the curriculum and why does it continue to be excluded?
Hi Laina,
I think this is a very important topic to bring in within schools. I think bringing in sexual education into the classroom and fulfilling our students needs, would help cut down sexual abuse numbers as well as hopefully bringing down the std/sti rates. If we are able to bring sexual education back into our curriculum then we may be able to help protect our students, as well as give them a safe environment to ask questions.