Abstract

Abstract:

Sex education is believed to be as old as man and should be given to everyone irrespective of age, gender or tribe. School–based sex education has been reported to be the most effective and a cost saving methods that help reduce inappropriate sexual behaviors and sexual exploitation such as teenage pregnancy which could lead to dropping out of school, increase in sexually transmitted infections, cervical cancer, early and increased sexual urge etc among pupils.The aim of this study is to examine the attitude and perception of parents towards sex education among pupils in primary school in Ilishan Remo, Ogun State. This study employed a descriptive cross-sectional study design in which 8 primary schools (4 private owned and 4 public owned) were selected by using a multi stage sampling techniques, Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire done in English Language (Cronbach’s Alpha test of 0.77). The Data were coded and analyzed using the statistical package for social science (SPSS) version 21.0. The Data analysis method include descriptive statistics (percentages and frequency). The result from this study shows that more than half 150(57.2%) were within the age range of 30-39 years compared to 67(28.6%) who were within 20-29 with the mean age of 34.5±0.676. However, majority of the respondent were females 167(637%) while males were 95(25.6%), about 234(89.3%) were married and about 182(69.5%) are Christians, result shows that most of the respondents were graduates or learned. 85.5% of parents will prefer to leave sex education to the school but not to be taught by counsellors alone, even if most parents were not given sex education 87.4% want their children to be taught sex education and about 81.7% parents disagree that they will not encourage their child to be taught sex education in primary school and 62.2% had good perception towards the teaching of sex education in primary school in which 88.5% respondent agreed that sex education should be taught in primary school to both gender. In the context of the sex education been given to pupils in primary school 56.5% of the respondent disagreed that sex education in primary school promotes sexual desire because 83.2% of the parents do not believe that sex education is all about sex without getting pregnant.The study concludes that in our ever changing world pupils are more exposed to explicit content through different channels so therefore sex education should be an unavoidable topics introduced to a child not only in the school but also by parents and teachers irrespective of the child’s age or gender.

Keyword: sex education, pupils, primary school, perception, attitude, parents and pregnancy