Let Us Talk About Sexual Education! Views and Practices of Parents and Teachers in Pakistan

Abstract

This research aimed at improving sexual education in a society where it is held as a taboo. The study explored parents’ and teachers’ views and practices related to sex education. Thirty individual interviews were conducted among twenty parents and ten teachers using a convenient sampling approach. We developed the “Views & Practices in Sex Education” (VPSE) questionnaire to collect data that were thematically analyzed. Most parents and teachers had inadequate knowledge of sex education and viewed it as touch forms, taking a ritual bath, and hijab/veiling. The parents unlike teachers opposed sex education at schools. The participants were more concerned about the risks than the benefits of sexual education. We recommend a gradual societal change through mobilizing social and electronic media, religious scholars, counseling psychologists, educators, and government authorities.

Keywords:

• Sexual education
• views and practices
• collectivistic society
• sexual health
• sexual abuse

Ethics approval

Sought from the Ethics Research Committee (ERC).

Authors’ contributions

All authors contributed to the study’s conception and design. Sabeen Sabir and Samreen Idrees performed material preparation, literature review, data collection, and data entry. Fayyaz Ahmad Faize performed the analysis, interpretation, results, and discussion. All the three contributed to manuscript writing, editing, proofreading, and approving the final manuscript.

Availability of data and material

Available on request.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.