The Minister of Education, Culture, Sports and Youth, Mr. Prodromos Prodromou made statements today, at the Ministry, on the issue of sex education in schools, following the meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights and Equal Opportunities between Men and Women, in which he participated and discussed the issue.
Specifically, Mr Prodromou said in his statements: "Today the Human Rights Committee of the Parliament was briefed on the issue of sex education in schools.
I would like to thank the Committee for its interest, because this is an issue to which we should give due importance and, as is the political will, to have in our schools in the coming years the education we need.
Already this school year, in consultation with the Voice Council, sex education has been included in particular in the pre-primary and first grade of primary school. We have sought, also in consultation with the "Voice" Council, to emphasise the early years. Therefore, efforts were concentrated in the pre-primary and first grade of primary school, the curriculum was enriched and teachers were trained with material from the Council of Europe and the well-known booklet "Kiko and the Hand".
At the same time, the Pedagogical Institute is continuously training teachers, a new Teacher's Guide has been created, entitled "Say No". The purpose is to inform and empower children so that - as the title says - they can say "no" where they may be threatened to be subjected to sexual abuse or some form of sexual exploitation. Figures have been tabled in the House on the number of teachers and managers who have been trained, both by the Institute of Education and the Educational Psychology Service. Whatever is done, whatever efforts are promoted, the necessary prerequisite is the awareness, the training of teachers.
At the same time, at the end of the month we will have the Greek translation of the book: "Kiko and Xeri" that will reach the schools. At the same time, within the framework of both the National Strategy and Action Plan for Combating Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation and Child Pornography, we are developing a series of actions and a relevant memorandum is being submitted to the Parliamentary Committee.
For the Ministry of Education, the issue of sexual education combines both the necessary social education of children in today's social context - so that they acquire the right consciousness on issues of self-esteem, self-awareness, self-consciousness, knowledge of both biological and social gender - as well as the development of skills so that children can be empowered, fortify themselves against phenomena of sexual abuse and/or exploitation, but also prepare themselves for their social presence and for healthy sexual relationships.
The House was informed that teaching on the subject is foreseen in both secondary school and high school. In primary school we have in the Health Education section a very specific syllabus, for which a detailed memorandum was also submitted. But there is agreement that we need to intensify efforts, to systematise training more and to see how to introduce more systematic development of these skills. It is interesting that we are moving towards introducing 'skills workshops' in primary and secondary schools, where, among other things, there will be a systematic approach to sex education. I believe that in this context we will be able to empower children through early information on issues of puberty, biological and social sex, the reproductive process - contraception, communicable diseases, etc. These are issues that need to be touched upon in the school and we are ready to discuss with both our stakeholders and our teachers and see how and in what context we can strengthen and generalize this teaching. I would like to take this opportunity to say that we have a valuable contribution to the Ministry, in addition to the Pedagogical Institute, from the Educational Psychology Service, which is always at the forefront of both information and training, as is also the Counselling and Vocational Education Service."
IP
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