Concern that sex ed in schools may be rolled back

An ultra right-wing official at the Education Ministry is again in the spotlight as lobbying by a pair of conservative groups has some worried that sex education for young people could be rolled back, even as rates of HIV/AIDS in the Czech Republic have grown in recent years.

The latest flashpoint stems from the decision by Education Minister Josef Dobeš (Public Affairs, VV) to issue a "10 Commandments on Sex Education," in late September, an unofficial document that, in part, downplays the role of schools in teaching young people about sex. It comes against the backdrop of nationwide HIV infection rates that are some 400 percent higher than a decade ago (see "Last year worst ever for HIV/AIDS," News, Jan. 12-18, 2011).  

While Dobeš admits that reforms to the general school curricula (RVP) are planned, he is seeking to distance himself from ultra-conservative groups' demands that sexual education be removed from schools. He has also taken strong aim at the policies of former Education Minister Ondřej Liška (Greens, SZ). But a group of experts has accused Dobeš of doing away with years of progress and bowing to the influence of extreme conservatives, including controversial ministry HR Director Ladislav Bátora.

Since the decentralizing of school curriculums in 2004, sex education has varied from school to school. While some basic information is covered in biology and family life classes, Liška sought to create the country's first-ever comprehensive sex-ed guide. Dobeš did away with that text in August 2010.  

A document circulating internally at the Education Ministry leaked to The Prague Post titled "Clean-up of the RVP" contains suggestions of the Committee for Protection of Parental Rights (VORP). Along with the Movement for Life, VORP successfully lobbied the ministry to withdraw the aforementioned sexual education guide for schools and disavow its own recommendation that schools use it.

"We have not even officially received [the 'Clean-up of the RVP' document]," Dobeš told The Prague Post. "Only the media is attempting to pass it off on us."

"We withdrew the recommendation [of the sex education handbook], but we did not ban it."

More recent lobbying efforts have urged Dobeš to eliminate discussions on topics like HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted diseases, sexual abuse and the equal status of men and women, according to the leaked document.

"Our arguments are based on the primary role of families in raising children," said Anna Brychtová, chairwoman of VORP. "School can never replace that. … If the families were not dissatisfied with current sex education in schools, our activities would not start in the first place."

"Our initiative has never been against information. It has always been about who will communicate it to children."

A group of nearly 150 doctors, teachers and concerned citizens recently wrote to Dobeš.

"We consider it unacceptable to change the basic educational framework based on subjective unprofessional opinions of the two groups [VORP and Movement for Life], whose views you prefer to the views of experts in the field of medicine, sexology, pedagogy and social sciences and even to the view of the Research Institute for Education in Prague," reads the letter.

The objections are led by Jaroslav Zvěřina and Petr Weiss, among the country's most respected sexologists, who emphasize that such changes go against World Health Organization (WHO) standards as well as the UN Convention for the Rights of the Child.

"This is an alarming attempt of the minister to change the curriculum in a brutal way based on a lobby of a narrow ultra-conservative group of society that disrespects long-term professional debate by dozens of experts," said Liška, now chairman of SZ.

"It is unprecedented in post-revolution history, and sadly, it fits the image of the Education Ministry under the influence of the D.O.S.T. initiative."

D.O.S.T., an acronym that translates as "enough," is the group headed by Bátora, who formerly ran for Parliament as a member of the far-right National Party. D.O.S.T. promotes ignoring the notion of "extremism," saying it promotes traditional values based on the rejection of a "dictatorship of political correctness."

Despite heavy criticism of Bátora's appointment even from within the governing coalition, he has remained in his post, prompting the resignation of dozens of experts from the Education Ministry.

While VORP argues parents should have the primary role in educating children about sex, most experts argue that schools play the essential role when parents fail to follow through.

"The discussion about sex-ed at schools has been going on for years, but we must realize that cutting out some topics could be a fatal mistake," said Hana Fifková, a sexologist and the author of several chapters from the rescinded sex-ed guide. "For some children, school is the only source of valid information."

Studies by WHO and the Czech Institute of Sexology show that children actually learn only about 10 percent of their knowledge about sex from their families and that the major sources are most often unreliable ones like peers.

"In this country, one group of experts pretends to create the impression that nothing else exists," Brychtová responded. "Even WHO is not an infallible authority, which can be proved by the recent bird flu outbreak where countries spent huge amounts of money on vaccines that were not needed."

Pavel Petrnoušek is a principal at ZŠ Kuncova, a school that provides extra sex-ed courses for children between the ages of 12 and 15 with parental consent, including a field trip to Lighthouse, an NGO that assists HIV/AIDS patients.

"They say they don't want to eliminate sex-ed, but the menstruation topic is a problem and the equality of men and women is a problem," he said.

According to Petrnoušek, the Movement for Life has sent books titled Reasons Not to Teach Sex Education to his and many other schools.  

"We had a 10-year-old girl here who didn't know what was happening when she got her first period. She thought she was going to die," he said. "It is not a family thing. The kids spend most of the time with us in school. We are educating them and cannot give up and skip certain topics."

Dobeš framed his planned changes to the curriculum as a fight against "business lobbyists" who want to make money on sexual education and accuses Liška of bowing to such interests, although he does little to elaborate on who these people are.

"We should teach children about sex in context, because it is a part of human relationships," Dobeš said. "The same applies to sexually transmitted diseases."

Earlier, Dobeš announced plans to make sex-ed an elective course falling under the umbrella of "ethics education."

"The explanation is rather simple," Liška said. "[Dobeš] is trying to divert attention from his fatal failures as a minister."

Regardless of whether Dobeš's motives are pure, his continued employment of Bátora seemingly lends policy decisions the impression that they could be unduly influenced by what most of the public would consider extremist views.  

"This isn't about sex education, but creating a new right-wing party that could be led by people like Bátora, [populist politician Jana] Bobošíková, [President Václav] Klaus or [government adviser Roman] Joch," Petrnoušek said.

Klára Jiřičná can be reached at
kjiricna@praguepost.com