Evaluating the Sex Education Content of the General Life Skills Programme From a Moral-Value Perspective

Abstract

The article addresses the problematic aspects of the value-moral education of minors in the sexual education portion of the General Life Skills Programme (GLSP). Its analysis is based on the premise that sexual education is inseparable from the value-worldview approach, which determines the paradigm, content and direction of the programme development. Exploring the interaction between the attitudes towards value-moral education of young people and societal expectations, the article is based on the analysis of the content of the sexual education part of the GLSP. Although the GLSP's founders acknowledge the value-worldview nature of the programme by aligning it with moral and social education programmes, the study reveals a disjuncture between the content of the programme and societal expectations: the GLSP is categorised as a mandatory formal education without alternatives; it is based exclusively on sex education and focuses on a unified, universally applied, partial (dis-integrated) sex education, based on controlling the consequences of risk. The methodological tools recommended for the programme often do not correspond to the age of minors, do not correspond to their psychosocial development, do not take into account the unique situation of the young person's physical, psycho-emotional and social maturity, and do not take into account other circumstances in their life. The GLSP does not take into account the individual situation and needs of the pupil, it rejects the natural concept of the family, and it excludes the principles of Christian anthropology. The sexual education part of the GLSP does not teach virtues, respect for human life, the family and the institution of marriage. Qualities such as bashfulness and chastity, which are important in sexual education, are presented in a negative connotation, and attitudes towards gender-neutral intimate behaviour are formed, associating sexual intercourse with the egocentric pursuit of pleasure, physical and social security, rather than with the profound encounter between the I-Thou between a man and a woman, which opens the way for the beginning of a new life.