Perspectives of stakeholders on the introduction of sex education in Maldivian schools

Abstract

Sexually transmitted infections and unplanned pregnancy among adolescents are important public health issues that can be tackled through the implementation of effective education strategies. This research study examined the views of students, parents and expertise on the introduction of sex education in Maldivian Schools. An exploratory research design was used and both qualitative and quantitative methods was used to collect data. 110 students whose ages ranged from 15 to 19 years from 4 schools of Male’ was given the self-administered questionnaire and other expertise were interviewed to find their attitudes towards sex education inclusion in schools. The findings of this study indicated that almost all the study participants had favorable attitude towards the importance of school sex education except for religious scholars. Students indicated that their preferable place for sex education provision is school compared to other places with a percentage of 54.5. It was found that gender and preferable place for sex education and source had a significant association with a P-value < 0.05. Parents and teachers agreed that the content of school sex education should include abstinence-only and it must be based on the principles of Islam only. Moreover, parents and teachers also said that the age for introduction time for school sex education should be between 12 and 15 years of age. Teacher teaching experiences and field of studies have a supportive idea about the starting of school sex education. Therefore, it is evident that there is support for sex education and future research is important for giving a more brief idea about perspectives from a bigger sample group.