Prasanna Chitrakar

Kathmandu, March 1:

The Ministry of Education and Sports is gearing up to incorporate sex education in the population and environment education course for lower secondary and secondary schools from next year.

“We have already prepared the course design for Classes 6 to 10,” Ram Niwas Thakur, district education officer of Bara, said during a three-day workshop on Nepal Leadership for Results: HIV/AIDS programme. The workshop began today.

The ministry, with support from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), is implementing the course in around 500 schools in various districts as a pilot project from April 13, the Nepali New Year day.

“We have not decided on the districts or schools yet but the targeting will be according to feedback on regions where people indulge in risky sexual behaviour and problems arising from girl-trafficking,” Thakur told this daily.

The government aims to incorporate the course in the school curriculum countrywide. It will also become a part of the School Leaving Certificate course in the next few years. The focus will be on providing information on HIV/AIDS and safe sexual behaviour to adolescents.

“We are conducting orientation exercises in districts with the local communities and trying

to break the barrier of silence,” said Thakur.

“We also want to impress upon people that we are not promoting sexual activity among adolescents, rather informing them about the risks.”

The workshop, the third in a row conducted by United Nations Development Programme and Human Resource Development Centre (HURDEC), aims to empower leaders from multiple sectors and levels to counter the spread of HIV/AIDS. The organisers are hoping this will translate into greater levels of commitment and effectiveness against HIV/AIDS.

The previous two workshops were held in August and November 2003. In the first, the core approaches of leadership for results: HIV/AIDS Programme were introduced to participants for developing breakthrough initiatives.

In the second, participants were oriented about breakdowns and ways to deal with breakdowns.