EduMin Cimpeanu: Sexual education curriculum is important and must be done

Education Minister Sorin Cimpeanu said today that the sexual education curriculum is important and must be included in a modular system under the concept "Education for Life", but that students should be able to withdraw from these courses if their parents do not agree to this; he also noted that there are debates underway on this subject within the ruling coalition. "There are debates within the coalition. My point of view is extremely clear: sex education is extremely important and must be done. Parental consent will be required in the following form - and this will be the proposal of the Education Ministry: all students enroll for a discipline that includes elements of sexual education, and they have the possibility to withdraw should the parents not agree. It's the same principle applied in 2015 for the religion course. Sex education is currently integrated in the health education curriculum, which has a very judicious structure, starting with the 5th grade with the simplest notions and progressively advancing to the 12th grade to the most complex and complicated notions of sex education. It's a very well designed syllabus that must be taught by biology teachers and possibly by medical staff," the EduMin explained in a press conference. Cimpeanu said that the Education Ministry's proposal is for this discipline to be integrated through a gradual distribution of notions correlated with the age of the students, along with health education, education for a healthy diet, legal, financial, road education, which could be all grouped in a modular system under the concept of "Education for Life" "with one compulsory hour per week from the 5th to the 12th grade." The Minister remarked that there is also the problem of the "competent" human resources to teach this discipline, which is the Education Ministry's task to solve. AGERPRES (RO - author: Roberto Stan, editor: Mihai Simionescu; EN - author: Simona Klodnischi, editor: Simona Iacob)