The National Union of Teaching Profession (NUTP) has expressed its support for the proposal by the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry to include sex education as part of the school syllabus.

Its secretary-general, Lok Yim Pheng, said schools have to take the lead in educating students and youths about sex because without proper guidance, they will be misled.

"The real concern here is that young people today have easy access of information from the Internet and there is totally no control of it. Hence, it is important for them to get proper guidance," she said when contacted today.

Lok reiterated that in order to provide proper guidance to the young on sex, teachers must be trained before they are allowed to teach this topic.

NUTP, she said, agreed with the ministry's proposal for sex education to be taught in schools by incorporating it into other subjects.

But teachers chosen to teach the subject must be knowledgeable and sensitive about the varied cultures and religions of ethnic groups in the country, Lok stressed..

She pointed out that children must be properly educated in order to know how to take care of themselves and this was not taught in the Internet.

"They need to know what is right and wrong (in terms of sex) and learn to respect each other and this information is not obtainable on the Internet," she said.

"With proper sex education provided to our young, it can help to eradicate unwanted incidents such as rape," Lok added.

High time

Asked whether it is appropriate for sex education to be taught to pre-school children, the unionist commented that what the ministry meant is to teach children basic knowledge for instance, the difference between boy and girl.

"It is the high time for the government to seriously consider sex education in our schools. It is warranted in a modern society," she said.

Meanwhile, the Star quoted the ministry's Parliamentary Secretary Chew Mei Fun as saying that sex education could be incorporated in the science, health, Islamic studies and biology subjects.

To help teachers in handling the delicate subject, the government has formulated the Healthy Reproductive and Social Education Guideline.

Chew said the proposed guideline was still being discussed by her ministry and the Education Ministry to coordinate its implementation.

The guideline was developed by a technical group whose members included representatives from the Education Ministry, Health Ministry, Youth and Sports Ministry and the Malaysian Islamic Development Department.