Sexual education in Portuguese schools

Portugal was a pioneer in the connection between health promotion and school. In 1901, it had already been created the Scholar Sanitary Inspection, mainly focused in the controlling of epidemics and endemics.

With the passage of time, school's role has been transformed, and it is no longer just a place where knowledge is transmitted; is now faced as the domain of education broadly understood, including in this concept the citizenship promotion, involving deepening of the sense of personal and social responsibility. It is in this context that the education for health in schools is framed, a goal which has won great strength in the educational projects of the Portuguese schools during the last decade.

Associated to health education appears sex education as one of its many facets, in an approach that has been the promotion of health in the broadest sense, involving the physical, psychological and social well-being. Thus, in the year 1999 a law, which strengthens guarantees regarding reproductive health was published; in 2000 it was attributed to the schools the role of integrating strategies to promote sexual health not only by organizing activities to develop curriculums, but also activities to complete curriculum, always requiring a school-family relationship.

The Portuguese legislation foresees the sex education in a school context, in primary and secondary school, and is embedded in the educational programs for health, along with nutrition, physical activity and the prevention of harmful consumption and violence in the school environment.

Only in 2005 the government made mandatory the inclusion of health education in educational projects for each school. Later, in August 2009, was regulated by law of Parliament, the requirement for planning specific time in the curriculum for sex education. Until publication of this law, approaches to sex education were not universal or regular, depending greatly on the willingness of teachers in classes and teams of draft health education. The law of August 2009, reaffirms the need for sex education arise from the complementarity of roles between family and school on behalf of existing conceptions of pluralism in Portuguese society. Already in April this year the Government set out the content to be addressed in sexual education. These are long and variable depending on the course. Are distributed across all years of primary and secondary education.

1st to 4th year deal, among others, topics such as:

• The notion of body and harmony with nature and the social and cultural environment;
• The notion of family;
• Differences between boys and girls;
• Body protection and limitations on abusive approaches.

In the 5th and 6th grade, new topics are introduced, such as:

• Puberty and its defining transformations;
• Sexuality and gender;
• Human reproduction and growth;
• Birth control and family planning;
• Menstrual and ovulatory cycles;
• Maltreatment and abusive approximations;
• Ethical extent of human sexuality.

Between the 7th and the 9th grades, those topics are recalled and new ones are introduced

•  STD (sexual transmitted diseases) and its impact worldwide;
• Motherhood an fatherhood in youth;
• Voluntary interruption of pregnancy, meaning and consequences.

Between the 10th and 12th grades, knowledge on the previous topics are deepened, focusing in ethic approach to human sexuality. Other topics such as:

• Initiation in sexual relationships in Portugal and in the European Union;
• Pregnancy and abortion rate in Portugal and in the European Union;
• Contraceptive methods, its safety and reasons of improper contaception.