PRESS ADVISORY: Let’s talk about sex: Thai-language technical guidance on sexuality education

In early May 2019, Thailand’s Department of Disease Control announced a drastic increase in syphilis infections in the country, with more than one in three infections among children of school and college-going age. Between 2000 and 2014, Thailand experienced a 54-per-cent increase in teenage pregnancies, with adolescents accounting for one in seven of all pregnancies in 2016 nationwide. One in three students in Thailand report being bullied at least once in the past month, with physical appearance and not conforming to gender norms a key driver, a recent UNESCO report concluded.

Evidence shows that comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) enables children and young people to develop the knowledge, attitudes and skills for safe, healthy and respectful relationships. Through a curriculum-based approach, CSE involves accurate and age-appropriate knowledge; positive values, including respect for human rights, gender equality and diversity; and building critical thinking skills to examine social norms, cultural values and traditional beliefs, in order to better understand and manage their relationships with peers, parents, teachers, and the wider community.  

To enable Thailand to strengthen CSE programmes and curricula in line with evidence-based “best practices” in the language spoken and understood by students, teachers and education policy-makers, UNESCO Bangkok, in collaboration with the Embassy of Sweden in Thailand, is releasing on 25 June 2018 the International technical guidance on sexuality education (ITGSE) in Thai.

UNESCO and other UN agencies held the global launch of the ITGSE in January 2018, complemented by the campaign “A Foundation for Life and Love” in September, which features parents and children from countries around the world – including a family from Thailand – to show why it is so important for young people to learn about health, relationships, gender, sex and sexuality.

The release of the ITGSE will be attended by officials from the Ministry of Education and other relevant ministries, heads of UN agencies and Embassies, civil society stakeholders engaged in CSE, school students, teachers and school leadership. The Government of Sweden, which provided funding for the revision of the ITGSE and UNESCO campaign, is hosting the event.

Media are welcome to the event by invitation.

When: 9am – 1.00pm, 25 June 2019
Where: The Residence of the Ambassador of Sweden to Thailand

For more information, contact:

Kabir Singh                                        
Regional Advisor, HIV & Health                                    
UNESCO Bangkok                                                               
k.singh@unesco.org                                                         

Jintana Sakulborirak
Political Officer
Embassy of Sweden
Jintana.sakulborirak@gov.se