Медицина /1.Акушерство и гинекология

Ассистент кафедры акушерства и гинекологии Бекжанова Мария Сарбаевна Д.м.н., профессор Сакиева Каншайым Жарасовна, Бекжанова Жазира Ербулатовна

(Аssistant Mariya Bekzhanova, Doctor in medical sciences, professor Kanshayim Sakiyeva, Zhazira Bekzhanova)

Западно-Казахстанский медицинский университет имени Марата Оспанова, Актобе, Казахстан

(West Kazakhstan medical university named after Marat Ospanov, Aktobe, Kazakhstan)

IMPORTANCE OF IMPROVING SEX EDUCATION FOR SCHOOLCHILDREN IN KAZAKHSTAN

Issues of moral education have always been and remain topical in any society. They are particularly urgent today, when society eroded moral values, and young people do not clearly define rules for the future. One of the major components of moral education is certainly sex education, which so far is not a centre of attention despite numerous suggestions and ideas from the government. So, the question about the research in the field of moral education and the further development of programme in sex education among the youth must be carefully considered nowadays, not ignored. First of all, it is a hot topic for obstetricians and gynecologists, who year after year are faced with increasing rate of abortions and infectious diseases among adolescents, young people’s refusal to do their parental duty, orphanhood.

Disputes about the relevance of academic classes on sex education in Western secondary schools are not topical now. Only 7 percent of Americans believe that sex education should not be taught at schools. Almost three-quarters of executives of secondary schools (74%) claim that during a school board or other public meetings the problem of the subject of sex education is not worth of discussing or arguing neither by the parents, nor other members of the community.

In the history of the Kazakh people, even in the years of war and famine, our ancestors did not leave the children, if there was any tragedy, dying parents, the child used to stay his native village. And there were no orphanages or any other institutions like that in the Kazakh society. All the problems that exist today are likely to be the results of ignorance of the young generation in the field of sexual behaviour. This conclusion was made by scientists of Aktobe region (Western Kazakhstan), who conducted a social survey among girls in urban and rural areas, local secondary schools. 256 girls of 15-18 years old took part in the survey. The first question was “Have you ever had a sexual contact?” 4% of the girls from urban schools answered “Yes”.

Table 1

	«Have you ever had a sexual contact?»
	Urban girls	Rural girls
Yes	4%
No	96%	100%
∑	100%	100%

We can conclude that girls from urban region are more sincere in these questions than the ones from the rural area, as statistics shows that rural girls abandon their children more often. Thus, probably not all respondents answered this question sincerely.

The reason of having sexual contact, according to the responses, was called mutual love. The majority of the girls, 51,5% from urban and 38% from rural schools, answered this way. Another interesting reason was announced by the respondents who thought it is a good way to get married. Mercantile interests still exist in our girls while romance and pure love are practically forgotten which also makes us think more carefully about improvement of moral sex education of our youth.

One of the most astonishing answers was given to the question “What are the main sources of knowledge about sex?” The participants gave the following information:

Table 2

	«What are the main sources of knowledge about sex??»
	urban	rural
Books, magazines, newspapers	22,7%	8,5%
Friends	16,4%	4,6%
Movie, films	30,5%	58,9%
Parents and other elder relatives	5,9%	3%
Teachers	1,6%	2%
Brothers, sisters	2,3%	3%
Medical people	10,5%	9%
Sex partner
Own experience	0,8%
I don’t know	9,3%	11%
∑	100%	100%

As we see in the table, the main source of knowledge about sex in the urban and rural areas are movies and TV.

The next question was: “What infectious diseases transferred by sexual contacts do you know?” The answers were the following:

Table 2

	«What infectious diseases transferred by sexual contacts do you know?»
	urban	rural
AIDS	66,5%	80%
syphilis, hepatitis	2%	3%
nothing	15,8%
other	1,7%	7%
I don’t know	14%	7%
∑	100%	100%

Here we can conclude that girls from the urban region are more afraid of AIDS, and almost all of them are not quite aware of infections and diseases transferred by sexual contacts. This matter emphasizes the necessity of starting a new stage in teaching our children how to behave and what to know about sex and all its consequences.

Despite all attempts of government to raise this problem, in fact, sex education is realized only by voluntary and enthusiasm of our local doctors and medical institutions of the oblast. For instance, assistants and associate professors of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of Marat Ospanov West Kazakhstan Medical University, Aktobe, annually include attendance of secondary schools and colleges into their work plan. They attend at least 5 schools and colleges a year, and give information about sex education. During 2012 there were given classes on contraception, free consultations and private conversations with schoolchildren and college students. The classes and trainings are held separately for boys and girls. The rules of using condoms, anatomy of the body of men and women, the process of conception and human reproduction are accurately explained and visually demonstrated on waxworks. There also explained the details of usage of contraception methods, their advantages and disadvantages. other подробности о других методах контрацепции, их достоинствах и недостатках. In consultations the doctors pay much attention to inculcating right moral sexual behaviour, there always held an informal preventing talk about consequences of early sexual life.

Unfortunately, despite such efforts, the dynamics of awareness on sex education among teenagers remains insignificant. Perhaps, the efforts of only medical volunteers are a very small contribution, and it is necessary to work out an official school subject on sex education with the assistance of physicians. Currently, obstetricians develop new methods of presentation accessible sex education materials, and the expansion of the potential material and content of the subject.

References

1. Uketaykizi G. The results of survey among the girls in Aktobe abd Aktobe oblast on the matter of moral sex education. Аstana, 2012

2. Sex education in America. Kennedy school poll, 2004