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 stu
dy 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 publi
c 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 soci
al 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 wi
thin 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 o
r 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 scho
ol 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 al
l 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 teach
ers irrespective of the child’s age or gender.
