Sex education? Population education? A new school programme for China's adolescents.
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The UNFPA (UN Population Fund)-funded population education program was reviewed last November 1994 in order to identify the emerging needs and requirements as well as chart the future directions of the program. The review was undertaken with the assistance of the CST SAWA Adviser on Population Education, Dr. D.M. de Rebello. Comprehensive literature review, and intensive discussions with government functionaries, educationists, teachers, students, UNFPA country director and staff and concerned officials of the World Bank and other UN agencies involved in the program served as the modalities for the review. The review looked into the current status of the school education sector and assessed the present progress of the population education program vis-a-vis its objectives and achievements. It also analyzed the issues and constraints in relation to institutionalization of the program, capacity building and integration of population education in curriculum and textbooks. Among the many recommendations, the review proposed further building up of national capacities at various levels; development of teaching/learning materials and textbooks for the new sectors; and intensification of good quality teacher education. Institutionalization of population education in the formal school system up to grade 12 and in technical and vocational education as well as the madrasah system and the introduction of population education in the Mass Non-formal Education Program were also proposed.
Formal population education is designed to teach children in school about basic population issues and, in many cases, to encourage them eventually to have smaller families. Some programs include specific units on human reproduction and family planning, while others do not. National population education programs began during the 1970s in about a dozen countries, mainly in Asia. These include Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, South Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Thailand, Egypt, Tunisia, and El Salvador. A strong case can be made for including an important contemporary issue like population in the school curriculum. Nevertheless, educational innovation is a difficult and long-term process. As a rule, it takes 5 to 10 years before new material can be fully incorporated in a school curriculum. Curriculum changes must be carefully planned, thousands of teachers trained, and appropriate materials prepared for classroom use. Moreover, differences of opinion over the need, acceptability, goals, content, methods, and other aspects of population education have held back programs in some countries. Where population education programs have been implemented, student knowledge of population issues increases, but it is not yet clear whether in-school education has a measurable impact on fertility-related attitudes or behavior.
Nine population education workshops were held for city school teachers in Baltimore, Maryland during the 1972-73 academic year. The original program schedule was modified two times, at the end of the third workshop and the sixth. Each change resulted in fewer formal presentations, more teacher discussions and greater teacher involvement in the workshop program. From the ideas generated by the workshops, curriculum units suitable for elementary and secondary school students were produced. An evaluation of the program showed that teachers' knowledge of selected demographic concepts and facts increased between the pre-workshop period and the post-workshop period. The changes were greater in the later workshops. The changes in knowledge were statistically significant. While there was some regression to pre-test levels, the teachers retained a substantiol portion of the knowledge they received when measured a second time after the workshop. High school teachers showed greater effective changes in knowledge than lower grade teachers. However, interest in population education appears to be wide-spread among all teachers including lower grade teachers. It is suggested that in the future, programs in population education consider conducting separate workshops for teachers of the same or similar grade level.
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The Population Education Program of the Non-Formal Education Center has developed a package of Population Education for Special Interest Groups comprising a learning package and fieldworker's guide. The learning package is especially developed for teaching population education for out-of-school populations. Special interest groups in Maldives include newly married couples, adolescents, and working youth. Produced under the guidance of UNESCO, Bangkok, the package contains 36 different materials such as posters, charts, leaflets, booklets, stories, and illustrated booklets which may be taught in 36 to 45 periods. The materials deal with eight themes, namely, family size and family welfare, population and resources, delayed marriage and parenthood, responsible parenthood, population-related values and beliefs, women in development, AIDS/STD, and respect for old people. Accompanying the learning package is the fieldworker's guide used to teach the package. It contains individual guides for each of the 36 learning materials. The guide gives the titles of the materials, format, objectives of the materials, messages, target groups, and an overview of the content of each learning materials. The methodologies used for teaching the learning materials include role playing, group discussion, questioning, brainstorming, survey, creative writing, problem-solving and evaluation. The package will be used by fieldworkers to conduct island-based population education courses.
A number of countries in Far East Asia are in the process of launching national population education programs. To get them off the ground and to keep them working needs the support of key personnel in the program. This means that basic training in population education should be given to key personnel to enable them to promote and efficiently run the population education programs. The Sub-Regional Group Training Course in Population Education organized by the Mobile Team of the Unesco Regional Office for Education in Asia and Oceania to be held in Bangkok from 18 August to 5 September is a response to this need. Training will be given to key personnel from Afghanistan, India, Nepal, and Pakistan. The specific objectives of the course are to provide the participants with: 1) opportunities for exchanges of information and experience; exposure to and involvement in developing population education curricula, teaching units and sample instructional materials; 2) an understanding of various strategies for curriculum development and methodologies used for designing and implementing programs; and 3) preparation as teams from each Member State able to contribute to the promotion of population education in school and out of school in their countries. The training course has 5 main thrusts, namely: 1) sharing of experiences and clarification of the concepts of population education; 2) development of population education curriculum; 3) development of teaching units; 4) development of sample alternative instructional materials; and 5) field visit to ongoing population education programs in Thailand. The content will cover: 1) the knowledge base which includes concepts, nature, issues and status of population education; demographic concepts, population and development; and 2) strategies and approaches such as those used in curriculum development and teaching units, methods of teaching, and instructional materials development. The training methodologies will include lecture and panel discussions, film shows, and practicum.
In the pipeline is the recently developed draft project document aimed at revitalizing and strengthening the population education in the country. It is now under review and approval. To reactivate the population education program, the project calls for the issuance of an Executive Order by the Department of Education, Culture and Sports to create a national Population Education Center and the establishment of 15 Regional Population Education Offices and 133 population education desks at the divisional level. This institutional network will ensure the nationwide implementation of population education program. It will also update and revise some existing curricula and develop new teaching/learning materials for kindergarten, elementary and university level as well as packages for learners and fieldworkers of nonformal education. The first baseline activities to accomplish this are to review the existing curricula for population education messages from kindergarten to grade 11 and university level as well as a survey to determine population learning needs of pupils and teachers from kindergarten to university level. The project will also go into training and re-training of project staff, trainers at national and regional levels, 2000 new teachers and 1000 formerly trained teachers and 17 documentation/library assistants. Strengthening of its Documentation Center and setting up to an information network will also be undertaken. Thus, by the end of the project, it is envisaged that about half a million students and 2500 educators would have increased their knowledge and developed positive attitudes towards population-related concepts.
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Since 1987, the State Resource Center of Jamia Millia Islamia of New Delhi has been implementing a program which integrates population education contents into its literacy education classes for adult learners. Using the core messages on family size, spacing of children, responsible parenthood, right age of marriage, population-related beliefs and customs and population and development, the Center undertook many activities such as: i) integrating population contents in literacy primers, readers and supplementary reading books; ii) development of teaching aids and instructor's resource materials; iii) organization of training for instructors and iv) holding outreach activities such as street corner plays, fairs, etc. To evaluate the impact of the program, the Center undertook an impact survey to measure the level of knowledge, attitude and practices of randomly selected beneficiaries of the project, i.e. 934 learners from 85 literacy learning centers, 5 years after the introduction of the population education program. The study used pre-test and post-test method for collecting data and to compare results. In terms of practice, the study has shown that the respondents having knowledge about family planning methods increased from 67 to 87%, after being exposed to the project's activities. There was also an increase of 61% in cases adopting family planning methods over the pre-measurement level. More importantly, there was not only an increase in awareness of public health and family welfare services but a 137% increase was registered in the use of public health and family welfare facilities for family planning counseling and services. With regard to knowledge and attitude on the various population education messages promoted by the project, the study has shown a 40% increase in "high" knowledge category and 25% increase in favorable attitude after the exposure to the project.
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The State Council of Education Research and Training (SCERT) in Haryana has adopted a stimulating approach in propagating messages of population -- through poetry. Through a project called Students Poetical Symposiums, the first phase convened around 20 teacher poets to participate in a workshop. In this workshop, 300 poems regarding six population themes were developed by the teachers. In the second phase, the developed poems were finalized by the experts and 108 poems were selected for publication in a booklet. The poems were classified according to the following themes: population and its effects on resources, effects of population growth, population growth and environment, population growth and economic aspect, population and social aspect, and population and emotional aspect. Each of these sections has 18 poems. The booklet also provides the users with guidelines for conducting Students' Poetical Symposiums. In the third phase, 36 schools were selected and oriented about this project. Students Poetical Symposiums were organized first at school level and later at the district level. More than 500 student poets recited the poems on the population education themes during 42 symposiums at the school and district levels to an audience numbering around ten thousand, comprising both students and the public.