Kerala Catholic schools to introduce sex education

The Family Commission of Kerala Catholic Bishop's Council (KCBC) based in the southern Indian state decided to introduce its own textbook on sex education to be taught in the Catholic schools across Kerala. The decision came after a meeting at the Pastoral Orientation Centre in Kochi recently.

The text book will contain apprehensible topics such as HIV/AIDS, expertise of doctors, theologians, psychiatrists and teachers. Apart from these the book will also examine the moral, spiritual and psychological education in an elaborative way.

"The book would look at the entire issue not only from a physiological perspective but also from psychological, spiritual and moral dimensions," said Fr Jose Kottayil, Secretary of KCBC Family Commission.

The book which will be first introduced in Kerala will also be circulated and taught in other Catholic schools across India.

The release of the latest book came due to a controversy after the Kerala Government Education Department introduced sex education book for all higher secondary schools. The new book will be published before March 2008 and made available from next academic year.

According to Catholic news sources, Catholic management runs more than 14,539 educational institutions out of which 60 percent are in villages and rest 40 percent in towns and cities.

Around 13,000 higher secondary schools are run by the Catholics in India with over seven million students. Kerala made a name for itself in the education field, by achieving 99 % literacy in the country.