Engaging on hesitation, shame and stigma around sexuality education with Government School teachers

Our first online introductory workshop with the teachers on sexuality education attracted the attention of officials from Government school paving the path for second workshop almost immediately.  With Covid-19, where teachers are engaging with students using digital technology but at the same time they are also seeking opportunity to enhance their own learning.  This adaptability provides a bridge to build conversations on sexuality education which otherwise is very nicely either ignored or imagined as non-existent especially in education system that carries the immense burden of structured syllabus and demand of excellent grades.

The introductory session on sexuality education began with sharing intention for the workshop following brief introduction about our work at Sahas. We then invited participants to introduce themselves along with one thing that they are grateful for during this world wide crisis.

“During this crisis, I am so grateful that I am healthy and not fallen ill. Secondly I am just so thankful for all the farmers because of whom not just me but so many people are getting food to eat and survive.”

“While the entire world is in the clutches of this dreaded disease, I am amazed by the patience people have. People are actually being cooperative and following rules to stay at home which seemed impossible”

In order to build a discourse on sexuality education, we invited them to share their experiences of having witnessed any conversations or situations or being asked questions that made them uncomfortable or they didn’t know how to handle the situation. The kind of response to this question didn’t surprise me but they emphasized the strong need to have sexuality education in schools.

“There are so many incidents that happen that I don’t know how to tackle. Sometimes students draw inappropriate drawings on desks, bathroom walls or in notebooks. Many a times those drawings depicts act which is questionable. There are fights too on this drawings because some of the students mention the name of someone’s mother on them. To cater to those complaints in front of the entire class is very difficult. I try my best to pacify the situation, explain things but I don’t think that’s enough.”

“There is this curiosities towards opposite gender’s body and many a times even with their own gender”

This led to our next discussion on the need of sexuality education for the students. To my surprise, the participants strongly advocated for sexuality education as part of curriculum. One of the teacher openly shared that there must be a course may be a short term subject that should be introduced just when these physical changes begin so that the students can understand their body, get answers to their curiosities and feel that this is normal and not something to be ashamed of.

Another teacher mentioned that subject teachers try to answer questions but they don’t have training to cater to these questions, also they are awkward, hesitant when it comes to engaging on curiosities related to sexuality education. These matters are crucial, sensitive and can have deep impact on student’s life so there should be trained teachers or designed sessions which could be helpful. According to them, the teachers try their best but that’s not really enough.

This workshop brought out one of the very crucial and almost cemented paradox of the shame and stigma around sexuality education. As shared by one of the teachers, “While we are at the topic of reproduction system, I remember my 8^th Standard where our teacher was hesitant in teaching the chapter so some teacher who used to teach 12^th standard came to teach us specific 2-3 related chapters. It was confusing and we were surprised as to why such a senior teacher would come and teach us and why not our own teacher? And then when in 12^th, everything is in detail. Our teacher explained male reproductive system elaborately but nothing about female system, boys had too many questions. I am sure they were excited, can’t say the same about girls. So our teachers asked the interested students to come to lab to discuss the questions. It was a co-ed school so no one actually went.”

It was important to understand that this pattern of not teaching the chapter of reproduction system given in the book approved by education system was not taught 40 years back, 20 years back and at present too! This is not an observation by us, but by the adolescents, parents and now teachers themselves. When teachers hesitate to teach what’s given in the book how in the world will they talk about sexuality education which is much more vast and is not restricted to sex education? It is not just because they are hesitant but are clouded by their own fears, anxieties and assumptions that come as a package with being in this society. Until this pattern is recognized and dismantled, the efforts to integrate sexuality education will be a huge challenge which is quite evident in the current scenario.

“I didn’t understand the hesitation around teaching those chapters while I was a student but now being a teacher it makes even less sense. Teachers need to take a step forward, hold that responsibility and engage on these conversations. I don’t see why they should be feel ashamed of teaching these topics, as a teacher we have this huge duty to shape student’s life. I know questions could be weird but we could answer them to best of our capability”

Another thing that I loved most about this session was the openness and readiness to learn! The teachers acknowledged that they are not fully equipped with the tools and language to engage on the issues of gender and sexuality. At the same time, they welcomed the idea of trainings on the sexuality education so that they could be sensitive and open to situations and questions asked by students.