Barriers and Opportunities for Improved School-Based Sex Education in Nepal

Nicole Stone, University of Southampton
Padam Simkhada, University of Southampton
Roger Ingham, University of Southampton

Although early and universal marriage is common place in Nepalese culture, the practice of delayed marriage is increasing, leading to a rise in premarital sexual activity and risky sexual behavior. Research has also highlighted limited knowledge of contraception amongst young people and almost negligible usage. Nepal's secondary school education curriculum includes "Health, Population and Environmental Education" in classes 9 and 10, within which reproductive health, family life education and safe motherhood is integrated. These classes however, tend to be biomedical in focus, teaching methods remain didactic and the time allocated to the subject remains limited. Using information collected during in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with young people, teachers and parents, and data obtained during a questionnaire based survey of students, this paper explores: young people's, teacher's and parent's knowledge, experiences and attitudes towards school based sex education; barriers to improving the curriculum; and opportunities for change.