KUCHING: The Sarawak Teachers’ Union (STU) is urging all parties concerned to shoulder the responsibilities of educating children so they can be aware of the possible social problems that they may encounter in the society.
STU president Adam Prakash Abdullah stated that schools have been trying hard to include sexual education in the school curriculum.
However, he pointed out that unfortunately schools were always considered as an inappropriate place to teach such subjects.
He was commenting on Sarawak Community Policing Association (SCPA) chairman Datuk Seri Victor Hii Lu Thian’s proposal for schools to include studies on sexual abuse including paedophilia in their syllabus to create awareness among the young.
“The time has come for parents to actually talk to their children about life of the grown up and sex education which was once a taboo. It would in fact help create a close bonding between parents and their children.
“We have teachers who sincerely tried to talk about sex education to the children but were unfortunately being accused as harassing the students instead,” he said in a statement on Wednesday.
Adam noted that schools had always been a teaching and learning institution which operates on the National Education Curriculum with subjects that fulfill the requirement of the National Education Philosophy, catering for the development of a holistic student.
He said the curriculum helped to develop pupils physically, emotionally, spiritually intellectually and socially.
“While doing all that, teachers also play other multiple roles in educating them.
“We sometimes do parenting in the schools, giving advices on what parents should actually do for their children, attending to sick children in the schools, disciplining ‘naughty’ children and preach good moral values so they will become useful citizens in the future.
“I am very sure that by now parents do understand how difficult it is even to get their children to follow learning from home schedule strictly, this is just one of the many tasks teachers do in the school apart from their official professional duty as teacher,” he explained.
Adam urged the SCPA to collaborate with parent-teacher associations to organise healthy holiday camps regularly to promote education on sexual abuse including paedophilia.
“Such support from the association would complement the schools’ efforts.
“STU believes that teachers will always look out for the existence of disciplinary problems among the children and continue to work with the Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) in solving issues involving students,” he added.
