CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

The lack of sexual education has been an ongoing issue all around the world and

because of this, there are many children and teenagers exposed to harmful sexual information

which leads to unwanted pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections, and sexual violence.

According to an article by Mijatović (2020), when sex education was first introduced in

European school curriculums, parents, religious leaders and politicians argued about how

much of it should be taught at a certain age. There are beliefs that are intentionally spread

around to scare parents from allowing children from learning proper sex education such as,

sexualizing children at a young age, homosexuality being a propaganda, gender ideology

spread around and taking away the rights of the parents to teach their children with their own

values and beliefs. Because of this, many parents and religious organizations have protested

against the inclusion of it in the school curriculum despite there being much evidence that

proves that it benefits the children and the society. This type of protestation and limitation of

sex education has negative impacts on children’s safe access to sexuality and relationship

education, along with other human rights education.

Mijatović (2020) has stated that UNESCO’s aim in the inclusion of sex

education in the school curriculums is to provide knowledge, skills, attitudes to children and

young people and to also provide them with, “values that will empower them to: realize their

health, well-being and dignity; develop respectful social and sexual relationships; consider

how their choices affect their own well-being and that of others; and understand and ensure

the protection of their rights throughout their lives”. They have also stated that there are
national and international evidences that have shown that the inclusion of sex education has

provided benefits to the young people such as, delayed sexual initiation; reduced risk-taking;

increased use of contraception; and improved attitudes related to sexual and reproductive

health. Teaching proper sex education to the children and young people is necessary as it also

provides essential information to the children about the risks of sexual exploitation and

sexual abuse, and how they can protect themselves. It was stressed to provide this education

to the young ones in order to prevent them from being preyed on by sexual offenders. 

The lack of proper sex education in the Philippines lead to many problems such as the

increase of percentage of teenage pregnancies. According to an interview conducted by Joven

(2021), sexual education in the Philippines is limited as it is not widely implemented in the

school curriculums. They expressed that the lack of sources for it is something to consider

and the appropriate information cannot be gathered unless it is taken in the hospital or the

clinic. They have also stated that some people believe that the internet can provide enough

information about this topic therefore it does not have to be implemented in schools however,

despite the internet being a very useful tool for information, they are not reliable when it

comes to providing reliable information to the teenagers. Trustworthy sources from the

internet are not enough to get information about sexual education.

Sexual education has shown to be beneficial to the young people and the children as it

provides them with safe and healthy sexual information. Although it is beneficial to the

young generation, it is still not implemented properly in the school curriculum in the

Philippines and is also considered a sensitive topic. This research aims to argue for the

inclusion of sex education in school curriculums to improve sexual health outcomes and

promote healthy relationships among young people in the Philippines.

The study aims to encourage the implementation of sex education in the school

curriculum in LOOC Integrated School. Specifically, the researchers sought to answer the

following questions:

1) What is the current state of sex education in schools?

2) How will proper sex education affect the students' perspective or thinking?

3) What are the problems encountered in the implementation of sex education in the school

curriculum?

4) Which among the variables significantly affect the respondents’ view in sex education in

terms of,

4.1 Gender

4.2 Sexuality

4.3 Age

4.4 Family background

5) How effective is it in providing students with the necessary knowledge to make an

informed decision about their sexual health?

1) The family background of a student significantly affects their view in sex education.

2) The gender of a student does not significantly affect a student’s perspective in sex

education.

3) There is no significant difference in respondents' views on sex education based on age.

Significance of the Study:

This study will be helpful as this will provide the benefits in the implementation of

sex education in the school curriculum which could limit the risks of teenagers being exposed

to harmful sexual information. This study will also give awareness about the problem in

where many young people, especially the young members of the LGBTQ community, lack

accurate information about sexual health, leading to negative consequences such as unwanted

pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections, and sexual violence. The ideas presented in this

study shall act as references for future studies on similar topics or act as data or testing

validity of future studies or experiments.

Scope and Limitations of the Study:

This research aims to argue for the inclusion of sex education in school curriculums to

improve sexual health outcomes and promote healthy relationships among young people in

the Philippines. This study also aims to see which among the variables significantly affects

the students view in the implementation of sex education in the school curriculum. This
qualitative study will be conducted in Looc Integrated School, Calamba City at the time

frame of 1 month and will be finished within 2023.

However, the study’s respondents will be limited to the students in STEM Grade 12

and in STEM Grade 7 in LIS.

Theoretical Framework

This study is based on the theories “The Social-Ecological Model” by Urie

Bronfenbrenner, “The Health Belief Model (HBM)” by Hochbaum et al. (1950s), and “Queer

Theory” by Eve Sedgwick (1990s).

In “The Social-Ecological Model”, the main idea of the theory is that in order to

prevent getting abused or being the abuser, one must understand the factors that causes it. It

uses a four-level model that illustrates the relationship between the factors; Individual,

Relationship; Community; and Societal and shows how it endangers a person or how it can

protect them from experiencing the abuse. It also shows that in order to prevent such abuse,

it’s a necessity to act across the factors at the same time. The first level analyzes biological

and historical characteristics that raise the risk of being a victim or an offender of violence.

The ages, education, income, substance use, and abuse history are some of these

characteristics. The chance of suffering abuse as the victim or offender may be increased by

close relationships, which are examined at the second level. The people in a person's closest

social circle; their friends, lovers, and family influence their actions and shape their

experiences. The third level investigates the environments wherein social relationships take

place, such as workplaces, schools, and communities, and seeks to determine the features of

these environments that are connected with a person becoming a victim or an attacker of

violence. The fourth level studies the main sociocultural elements which determine how
violence is encouraged or discouraged. Among such are social and cultural norms that

promote violence as an appropriate way of resolving issues. The health, economic,

educational, and social policies that support the maintenance of economic or differences

between societal groups is more significant societal issues.

In “The Health Belief Model”, this theory suggests that people will most likely take

precautionary action to their health if; they believe the threat is serious, they are vulnerable to

said threat, and if there are lesser sacrifices made when taken action. It says that the personal

belief about the danger or an illness along with the personal belief about how they are

recommended to behave will likely tell if the person will adopt the wanted behavior. The

HBM has 6 levels which are; Perceived susceptibility which refers to the perception of a

person about getting an illness or disease, Perceived severity which refers to feeling the

seriousness of an illness or disease or illness that has been left untreated, Perceived benefits

refer to the perception of a person that has done various effective actions in order to help

lessen the threat of an illness or disease, Perceived barriers refer to the person facing their

problems and challenges when it comes to taking action, Cue to action referred as a necessary

trigger to perform proper decision making in accepting a recommended health action, and

lastly Self-efficacy refers to the level of confidence a person has to successfully perform the

recommended behavior in the situation.

In “The Queer Theory”, Sedgwick argues that the most powerful impacts of modern

definitions of homo/heterosexuality arise from the implicit or denied gaps between coexisting

minority and universal understandings of same-sex relationships. By highlighting the

inconsistencies within available models of homosexuality, Sedgwick aims to undermine the

naturalization of current assumptions about what constitutes homosexuality in contemporary

society. She asserts that sexuality encompasses dimensions beyond object choice gender,

urging a closer examination of the diverse ways in which individuals may be similar or
different from each other. Rather than accepting the monolithic distinction between homo and

heterosexuality, Sedgwick directs attention to the everyday differences that shape sexual

experiences but are often overlooked in epistemological terms. Sedgwick emphasizes that

some people experience their sexual preferences as innate and enduring, while others

perceive them as emerging later in life or as unpredictable and discretionary. Moreover, she

points out that for some individuals, the prospect of unsatisfying sexual encounters is highly

undesirable and shapes their lives, whereas for others, it is not a significant concern.

Sedgwick's work exposes the resulting consequences, including limited access to education

and the perpetuation of social and economic inequalities.

Conceptual Framework

INDEPENDENT VARIABLE

Sex Education MEDIATOR VARIABLE

- Gender

- Sexuality
DEPENDENT VARIABLE
- Family Background
Students in Looc Integrated

School

Figure 1.  Research Paradigm

The independent variable is the sex education while the dependent variable is the

students in Looc Integrated School. The researchers will conduct a survey in order to find out

the opinions of the students studying in LIS on the implementation of sex education in the
school curriculum. The mediator variables are age, gender, sexuality and family background.

These are factors that affect the students view on sex education. The researcher will find out

which among the mediators affects the student’s perspective on the implementation of sex

education.

Definition of Terms:

 Abstinence- The practice of not having sex.

 Contraception- Also known as Birth Control, are medicines, devices or surgery that

prevents pregnancy and these could be temporary or irreversible.

 LGBTQ- It is an abbreviation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender,

Queer/Questioning, etc. which are terms to describe a person’s sexual orientation or

gender identity.

 Teenage Pregnancy- Also called adolescent pregnancy, is when a woman between the

ages 15 to 19 get pregnant.

 Sex Education- Is education that provides the youth information about reproductive

health, sexuality, relationships, and skills on how they can make an informed decision

in regards to their sexual health.

 Sexual Transmitted Diseases: Are infections that are passed from one person to aother

through sexual means.

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

Foreign Literature:

Laws about Sexual Education

According to an article entitled “Sex Education Laws and Public Schools” (2022), sex

education in most of the states in the USA vary from each other, from either teaching the

children about it or not depending on the decision of their parents. In an article entitled “Sex

Education Laws and State Attacks” (n.d.), in statehouses and city halls, the Lawmakers

decide what are to be taught, and what aren’t, in sexual education in schools. This means that

they control what the children learn about from whether or not they should learn about birth-

control to the inclusion of LGBTQ related topics. In the same article, 37 states have laws

gives heavy emphasizes in the abstinence in sex education while only 18 states have the

educators discuss information about contraception. 18 states in America provide accurate

medical information about reproductive health while 26 of it and the District of Columbia

require it to be age-appropriate for the children.

In terms of LGBTQ-inclusive sex education, only 10 states require the inclusion of it

while 6 Southern states have either forbid any sort of discussion related to the LGBTQ

community or provide little to no. This decision has led with the young LGBTQ+ community

with no information about how to protect themselves from their sexual health and from

abusive relationships (“Sex Education Laws and State Attacks”, n.d.). An E-book entitled

“LGBTQ+ Youth Need Inclusive Sex Education” (2021) further supports this claim as 24%

of LGBTQ students have not received any LGBTQ-inclusive information about sex

education and only 8.2% received it. It was reported that 50% of those in the LGBTQ+
community found the information about sexual education taught in schools were not helpful

compared to those who aren’t part of the group. They were only able to search through the

internet which was not reliable as they weren’t age-appropriate and medically accurate,

making them vulnerable to the misinformation given online.

Religion and Culture

According Slominski (2021), “…the debate over sex education has generally followed

culture war divides, with liberals supporting comprehensive sexuality education, and

conservatives leading calls for sexual risk avoidance education.”. Since the late 1960s,

Protestantism has been vocal about the inclusion of sex education in schools. They have

greatly influenced, both processive and conservative, the many aspects of sex education.

Prince Albert Morrow, the founder of US sex education and the father or social hygiene,

found out that using religious content into medical campaigns are effective when it comes to

convincing people to learn about sex education. This is because scientific information about

sex is not taken seriously unless religion was included and by the early 20th century,

Christianity was used as a mean to convince people to study sex education. Morrow’s work

created an alliance between hygiene and morality and this eventually led to the creation of the

American Social Hygiene Association in 1914, now called American Sexual Health

association, an organization that paved the way the national sex education movement would

be in the future. Although the Christianity helped with convincing people to learn about

sexual health, it has also led to physicians accusing conservative Christian reformers of

spreading misinformation about medical information in order to appeal to religious

community. This has been something feared by the doctors as the religious approach to the

topic would disregard scientific and medical information for conversion and prayer.
Local Literature:

Laws about Sexual Education in the Philippines

When the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health of 2012 was

implemented, sex education was integrated into the public-school curriculum. The

implementation of this act also leads to funding for contraceptives at health centers and

public schools. This act was implemented in order to help with the many ongoing health

related issues in the Philippines such as infant mortality, pregnancy-related deaths and the

increase HIV/AIDS cases. Teenage pregnancy has been one of the most common issues in

the country with 9% of women ranging between the ages 15 to 19. The country’s problem

with overpopulation is due to poverty which is usually caused by the Filipino’s lack of

knowledge about reproductive health. Because of these issues, the RH Act was implemented

in order to inform the Filipinos to make decisions in regards of their reproductive health. This

provides people with more equal access to sex education, while simultaneously protecting

women’s reproductive rights, providing accessible information about family planning, and

providing maternal health professionals in urban and rural areas in the Philippines. Former

President, Rodrigo Duterte, has ordered the government to provide women with free access to

free contraceptives in 2017 in an effort to reduce the country’s poverty rate. This was ordered

after the restraining order was lifted in order to address the issues of overpopulation. The

CSE includes consent, sexual violence, contraceptives and other topics that would be taught

to the children. This bill would also further provide better access to reproductive health

services, which furthers supplements the goals of the RH Act. (Nichols, 2019).

In September 9, 2021, the Department of Education (DepEd), Department of Health

(DOH), and Commission on Population and Development (POPCOM) has launched the
Comprehensive Sexuality Education Adolescent Reproductive Heath (CSE-ARH)

Convergence in order to address the ongoing issues happening among the youth. This

includes the high rates of teenage pregnancies, HIV/AIDS infection and other reproductive

health issues that youth are facing. This program paved the way on providing the youth with

the necessary reproductive health information and their medical needs while also preventing

sexual abuse and gender-based violence (“ICYMI: DEPED, DOH, POPCOM LAUNCH

CONVERGENCE OF COMPREHENSIVE SEXUALITY EDUCATION AND

ADOLESCENT REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH”, 2021).

Religion and Culture in the Philippines

Philippines has a population in where 80% of the Filipinos identify as Roman

Catholic. Because of this, the Catholic Church has a large influence when it comes to the

sexual education in the country. They strongly oppose to sex before marriage and believe that

the implementation of sex education would only increase sexual relations. The Catholic

Church disagrees with the RH act which makes it difficult to put in action. They disagree

with implementing sex education in schools and distributing contraceptives. The Catholic

Church wants the parents their children about the topic however, the families are not well

equipped or are not comfortable with addressing the topic to their children. (Nichols, 2019)

Foreign Studies:

According to the study conducted by Goldfarb and Lieberman (2020), sex education

taught in schools has provided a vital role in the sexual health and the well-being of young

people however, at the time, there is little information about the effectiveness of it besides the

prevention of pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease. They have conducted 30 years of
systematic literature review of research on school-based programs in order to see the

effectiveness of sex education. The researchers used ERIC, PsycINFO and MEDLINE in

order to find information that would help with the research. They were able to find 218

relevant articles out of the 8,058 ones that have met their specific review criteria for the

systematic literature review. They have 39 relevant articles that supports their research as

more than 80% that focused on pregnancy and disease prevention were excluded. To identify

evidence that reflects the full range topic area, the researchers expanded the criteria to studies

outside the United States. The results that have been gathered from the study showed that sex

education was able to provide appreciation of sexual diversity, prevention of abuse from an

intimate partner, development of healthy relationships, the prevention of child sex abuse,

improvement in social and emotional learning, and development in media literacy. The

evidence gathered supports that well-constructed sex education must start at elementary

school and should also include information for the LGBTQ community in the school

curriculum. The researchers concluded that sex education has more benefits to it and provides

a positive, supporting and inclusive approaches to human sexuality.

According to a study by Maimunah (2019), sex education in Indonesia is still

considered a sensitive topic and are rarely given attention to both in school and in home

which led to teenagers to seek information that are harmful. The researcher’s study aims to

find out whether or not, sex education is important to be taught to the youth. They chose 165

subjects, aged 12 to 19 years old, and asked them about their own perspectives on; avoiding

sex and promiscuity; the development of the information in sex education; the impacts of

premarital sex, including both STDs and teenage pregnancy; self-protection, like premarital

sex and sexual harassments. The results showed that sex education has a significant affect on

the teenager’s perspective and the researcher concluded that it is necessary that both the

parents and teachers must provide the youth with proper sex education.
Local Studies:

According to a study conducted by Azarraga et al. (2021), due to the conservative

nature of the Philippines, CSE is overlooked which results to the increased rate of teenage

pregnancy, harmful sex practices, and the increase of STDs. This also limits the valuable

information that the preadolescents are meant to be learning such as sexual orientation and

gender expression. The researchers used scales to measure four variable which are;

Background Characteristics; Quality of Sex Education; Knowledge about the Topic; And

Attitude, and a descriptive correlation design to find out the relation between them. The

researchers discovered that proper sex education has a positive effect to the sexual knowledge

of the students and they also had a positive sexual attitude. It also showed that respondents

that come from religious schools had a wide perspective on sex education.

According to the study conducted by Gallao et al. (2019), sex education is a sensitive

topic in the Philippines since it is a Christian County. They had a hard time implementing sex

education to the curriculum as the people found it too sensitive a topic to be talked about. But

as the cases of teenage pregnancies and other sexually related issues keep increasing, the

government of the Philippines decided to make a move to implement sex education to the

school curriculums after they realized the importance of sexual education on the said current

problems. A DepEd order was passed to be able to implement age-appropriate proper sex

education for adolescents. The main objective is to figure out the student’s current

knowledge, behavior and opinions about sexual education. The study used quantitative, non-

experimental research design. The researchers used questionnaires as the instruments. As a

result, 19.15% out of 846 respondents said they have already tried sexual activities, most of

them have 1-2 partners (10.99%) and mostly the age of 16 (6.74%). The respondents said that
they prefer masturbation more than any of other sexual activities and those who had

experience on sex feel embarrassed buying contraceptives. It shows that the sex education of

the students is generally low and their knowledge and opinions about sex are at average level.

Those who don't have experience of sex have low extent of Sexual Behaviors but those who

have experience have average. However different genders show different results in their

sexual behavior.

According to Nepomuceno (2019), the teenagers getting pregnant and engaging in

pre-marital sex in the Philippines are increasing, because of lack of sex education and lack of

information about it. The author used sampling and collected data through in-depth

unstructured interviews and survey. The result showed that some students are aware in sex

education and they not find it vital and are not satisfied because some of the students learned

it from their peers and family members and they did not learn it from school. They did not

learn enough from sex education that could help them avoid problems and incidents related to

sex education. The study indicates that the reform the current sex education curriculums in

school curriculums. They suggest providing more training for teachers on how to provide

education about sex and other sex-related topics. However, there is a limitation in this study,

the sample size is small, consisting of only junior and senior high school students of one

school and limit their findings. Overall, this study provides valuable information about the

importance of sex education and its effect on teenagers. The author mentioned that, we need

for further research and action in improving sex education in schools to promote healthier

sexual behaviors among young students.