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Call for rethink in sex education

By Miriam Dunn

A national sexual health policy currently in the pipeline is well overdue, if figures collected and interpreted by the head of Malta’s genito-urinary clinic are anything to go by.

Data collected by Dr Philip Carabot during the clinic’s first year – 2000 – reveals that three quarters of the patients seen regularly had sex without condoms.

And Dr Carabot, who admits that the number of clients he treats are probably the tip of the iceberg since the vast majority of patients – 75% - still go to their own GP, lays the blame squarely on the lack of comprehensive sex education in local schools.

"We need a complete rethink of our approach to sex education," he said.

The lack of condom use in Malta mirrors trends in the UK where data showing a resurgence of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections indicating that condoms are not being used.

But while ignorance is being blamed in Malta, in the UK the trend is being attributed to complacency and the dying down of the initial panic of the 1980s when the HIV virus was first discovered.

"Malta cannot really be compared to the UK in this regard," Dr Carabot said. "In the UK they have rethought the entire approach to their AIDs-warning advertising because it was found to not be working.

"There is an advanced level of sex education available, condoms are free, yet they still have a very high level of HIV.

"They have therefore revised the package, with a slightly different approach that condoms are not necessarily the only answer, rather being selective with one’s partners is also important."

But in Malta, he pointed out, in contrast, condoms are still not promoted enough, since there is still a taboo surrounding them, while, even more importantly, there is still hardly any sex education.

The figures Dr Carabot has collated from the consultations carried out in the first year show that 70% of the patients were male. A total of 44% were aged between 20 – 29, while 9% were aged between 15 – 19 years old, which, he added, certainly goes some way to dispelling the myth that the younger generation are not practising sex.

His statistics show that 60% of the clients were single, while the rest were married. A total of 90% were heterosexual, 7% were homosexual while 3% were bisexual.

Half the people treated described their partners as casual, with 6% admitting to having had sex with prostitutes.

Asked to comment, a spokeswoman for the education department said that the health promotion department is in the process of developing a national sexual health policy.

"A committee has been set up and one of the key areas to be covered will include sex education in schools," said Mary Vella, director of the national curriculum.

Ms Vella stressed that education on human sexuality and wise choices in the field of health are covered in the national curriculum, in particular in the syllabuses of PSE, Home Economics, Integrated Science and Biology and Religion.

"The education division does not divorce the imparting of knowledge and information from the building of values," she said. "The fundamental values of love, family, respect, inclusion, social justice, solidarity, democracy, commitment and responsibility are considered as essential foundations of the compulsory education process."miriamdunn@maltamag.com