Take that look of complete and utter shock of your face, I do implore you. Breathe, reader, breathe. As ambiguous as the title might be, let me hasten to assure you that this piece does not involve anything highly unsuitable. As a matter of fact, it is quite the opposite. The ‘E’ above represents a tried-and-tested subject, something you’ve all heard before and will continue to hear throughout your education. Yes; I am talking about sex education.

Sex education is one of the most talked about topics of today. It appears, according to recent surveys and studies, that quite a huge number of people in our country lack knowledge when it comes to sex education. This knowledge covers consequences of the act itself, diseases due to it, precautions and preventions. For instance, the Form 3 Science textbook has, under the Reproduction chapter, a sub-topic about the various ways to prevent pregnancy. Those of us who have completed that particular chapter know this to be true.

However, I ask you: is sex education only about pregnancy? What happened to, say, sexually-transmitted diseases (STDs)? They exist, frighteningly enough. Which proves that the education provided simply isn’t enough! There is a fine line between naivety and blank ignorance. Quite unfortunately, the Weekend Mail has proven many citizens here to have crossed that line and gone over to the Dark Side.

Ah, yes. The Weekend Mail, the Malay Mail’s version of a weekend newspaper. Why has it been MIA (Missing in Action) for the past few weeks? It has been suspended indefinitely by the authorities. They highlighted the issue of the lack of sex education, but also brought up several things deemed too extreme for public reading. Still, their highlighting of this particular issue has woken up a number of people to the fact that the knowledge of sex education in our country is paltry, at best. The issue that caused their suspended was that only a few of the women they asked knew what ‘Chlamydia’ was! (Incidentally, for those who are not in the know, it is a sexually transmitted disease)

Lack of sex education leads to dire consequences. Cases such as abandoned babies, botched abortions, girls of fourteen or fifteen being single mothers, the rising rate of HIV-positive patients… it is all because these people do not know the proper precautions amd protections (and, in some cases, possibly did not bother to make full use of the knowledge) .

Sex education has ceased to be an elective; it has become a necessity. Yes, it is admittedly boring, bland, banal. Yet it benefits us, in the sense that we are so much better equipped to face the challenges of life, which will, quite definitely, involve the act written above. So! Aye or nay? You decide.