PARENTS' VIEWS ON SEX EDUCATION IN JUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1             BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Sex education is a wide word that refers to learning about human sexual anatomy, reproduction, sexual intercourse, and other elements of human sexual behavior. According to Anibueze (2001), sex education is a study that helps a person establish a positive and healthy attitude toward sex, allowing him or her to live a complete life, enjoy life fully, and develop as a responsible member of the community to which he or she belongs. Sex education, like other types of education, attempts to prepare youths for a better society. As a result, sex education is a design that allows a person to learn about sexuality and develop a positive attitude toward sex. According to Kearney (2008), sex education entails a comparable course of action by the school, calibrated to instill in children and adults the socially acceptable attitudes, practices, and personal behaviour that would best safeguard the individual as a human and the family as a social institution. As Nwafor (2006) puts it, the fundamental aims of sex education are to promote sexual health by giving learners opportunity to develop a positive and accurate view of sex, as well as the information and skills they need to take care of their health. Despite the fact that sex education has a significant positive impact on men, it is not included in the curriculum of Junior Secondary School in Ebonyi State. The threat of sexual difficulties, such as ignorance, misbehavior, immorality, and infections, is always there for young people in the region (Sophia, 2005). As a result, it is now more important than ever for educators to pay attention to all phases of education by updating and enhancing school curricula in the field of sex education (Jenny, 2004). Sex education is required to educate the young for the challenges that lie ahead. Even if society recognizes the need of sex education, parents may refuse to support its inclusion in the Junior Secondary School curriculum. It's worth emphasizing that socializing takes place in the school setting among students from various ethnicities and backgrounds. Sex education may occur in a number of situations, both within and outside of the classroom. Through the establishment of awareness, the school plays a critical role in preparing teenagers to cope with the challenge of becoming responsible men and women in the future (Helen, 2006). According to Kehily (2002), various persons have the potential and obligation to give sex education for young people in this diverse environment. As a result, parents' attitudes can have an impact on their children's life; for example, some parents, even when aware of their children's sex-related interest, may purposefully refuse them suitable answers or altogether avoid them. The term perception refers to attitudes or habits that are supposed to be countered. Perception, according to Denga (2002), is the act of being aware of an object's attributes or relationships through the use of sense organs. According to Haggai (2000), the process through which we arrange and understand the pattern of inputs in our environment is called view. The process by which an individual employs his sense organs to turn the disparate stimuli of the environment into knowledge of things and meanings is referred to as perception. A pattern of consciousness is formed by the organization of personal, current, sensory, and previous experiences into a pattern of awareness that demonstrates the quality and interrelation of objects and meanings (Denga, 2002). The whole of a person's perspective of a situation is attributed to his attitude. A person's attitude determines whether he or she reacts favorably, indifferently, or negatively to a particular event (Mallum, 2000) Parental perceptions of sex education pertain to how parents view and respond to the necessity for sex education in junior secondary schools. A study of parents' attitudes toward sex education in junior secondary schools in the Ebonyi urban area is needed because it will reveal their level of awareness and the importance they place on this aspect of education. This will either lead to acceptance or resistance, requiring school administrators' support in redefining how sex education is introduced in Junior Secondary Schools. In Nigeria, children grow up sexually absurd, with distorted views of sex, according to Izugbara (2001). The denial of sex education, which primarily aims to provide accurate factual information and understanding of sex-related issues, may cause difficulties for adolescents and society as a whole. Furthermore, youngsters are unable to recognize the direction of societal development and are constantly entangled in a web of uncertainty (Malli, 2007). Our educational system, which is responsible for teaching our children about the changes that occur in their bodies and why they occur, is having difficulty since sex education is not taught as a subject in school. It's unclear what has delayed its implementation. Because the view of parents has not been ascertained, it is impossible to begin identifying tactics to promote sex education among Junior Secondary schools in Ebonyi urban region of Ebonyi State without truly knowing the cause of the lack of it. In this context, the researcher decided to investigate parents' attitudes toward sex education in junior secondary schools in Ebonyi city, Ebonyi state.

1.2             STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Man's sexuality is a vital element of his existence that may bring him a lot of joy or a lot of suffering depending on how it is managed. It is clear that young people, particularly teenagers, in Ebonyi are continually threatened by sex-related concerns like as illnesses, misbehavior, ignorance, and immorality (Kehily, 2002). The failure of the educational system, particularly in Ebonyi metropolis, to include sex education in the Junior Secondary curriculum has resulted in a delay in the acquisition of necessary information and a knowledge gap in sexuality issues for teenagers. It's no surprise that young people in Ebonyi try to fill this void through methods that aren't always adequate or reliable; the result is an increase in sexual danger, with a high prevalence of sexually transmitted diseases, particularly HIV/AIDS, which has become a global pandemic with no known cure. Among the teenagers in the region, there is a lot of disobedience and social misfits (Micheal, 2007). Early marriages, abortions, unplanned pregnancies, school dropouts, and extreme indiscipline are all common among the adolescents in the region. This has created a challenge in Ebonyi State, particularly in the Ebonyi urban region; the state risks losing its working population, as well as future generations of this wonderful nation. The fact that sex education has not been implemented in Junior Secondary Schools in Ebonyi City, Ebonyi State, till now suggests that there are some issues. As a result, the researcher wants to look at how parents feel about sex education in Junior Secondary Schools in Ebonyi City, Ebonyi State.

1.3             OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The goal of this study is to learn about parents' attitudes regarding sex education in the Junior Secondary School curriculum in Ebonyi, Ebonyi State. The purpose of this study is to:

i. Determine parents' attitudes about sex education in Junior Secondary Schools in Ebonyi, Ebonyi State.

ii. Determine if parents' attitudes about sex education in junior secondary schools in Ebonyi metropolis are influenced by culture.

iii. Examine the curriculum developers' efforts in the Ebonyi metropolis to include sex education in the Junior Secondary School curriculum.

1.4     RESEARCH QUESTIONS

i. What are the attitudes of parents'  about sex education in Junior Secondary Schools in Ebonyi, Ebonyi State?

ii. How can parents' attitudes about sex education in junior secondary schools in Ebonyi metropolis influenced by culture be determined?

iii. What is the curriculum developers' efforts in the Ebonyi metropolis to include sex education in the Junior Secondary School curriculum?

1.5     SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The purpose of this research is to find out how parents feel about sex education in junior secondary schools in Ebonyi city, Ebonyi state. As a result, it is important to children, parents, education policymakers, the federal government of Nigeria, guidance and counsellors, and the general public. The findings of this study may hopefully enlighten students on issues concerning sex education. The study may also encourage students to develop responsible sexual behavior, thereby preventing them from early marriages, premarital sex, unwanted pregnancies, increased abortions, the spread of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), school dropouts, and other social services characterized in our society. The outcomes of this investigation may, in theory, disclose the parents' perceptive level. If the results are favorable or negative, they may be able to chart a new course in addressing the concerns and challenges that arise from sexual matters among their children, which has a significant impact on them. Parents can raise awareness of the proposed intervention program through church campaigns and town assemblies. The findings of this study are expected to provide more clarity and direction to education policymakers, allowing them to enact a policy on the inclusion of sex education as a course of study in Junior Secondary schools' curriculum, as well as encourage its rapid implementation in Junior Secondary schools. The outcomes of this study might help counsellors and guidance counselors plan and administer a much-needed sex education program. Counselor education programs might also be reorganized and expanded to include such counseling intervention fields as student sexuality counseling. This study's findings will help school officials raise awareness about sex education and the hazards of carelessness. Seminars, workshops, conferences, and public awareness campaigns might all be used to accomplish this. School administrators will use well-planned and coordinated dissemination of reliable information through the mainstream media to develop more favorable attitudes toward sex education concerns, because adolescents are tomorrow's leaders and cannot continue to be uneducated about sexual affairs. The outcomes of this study may help the federal government to include support for expanding government resource allocation for sexuality education and counselling in junior secondary schools. To do this, government education organizations will collaborate with professional counsellors. Finally, the conclusions of this study may give an empirical education for educational improvement in this area. This is because the findings might give empirical information on parents' perceptions of sex education in junior secondary schools.

1.6     SCOPE OF THE STUDY

This study is limited to the Ebonyi urban area. The study focuses on junior secondary schools in the Ebonyi urban region. The research focused on parents' attitudes on the introduction of sex education in Junior Secondary Schools in Ebonyi, Ebonyi State.

1.7   DELIMITATION OF THE STUDY

Due to time constraints and a lack of funds to undertake the study, the research was confined to a single local government region in Ebonyi State.