PERCEPTION OF PARENTS TOWARDS SEX EDUCATION IN JUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS

ABSTRACT: Education helps to develop desirable habits, skills, and attitudes, which make an individual a good citizen. It prepares an individual for change within the basic moral standards, and change within the core values of society, sex education is basically vital for this purpose. Several reasons have been advanced on why it is most suited for these purpose and as such seriously needed. It is to this effect that this research seeks to investigate the perception of parents towards sex education in Junior Secondary School in Enugu Urban Area of Enugu State. The design adopted in this study is the survey design .The population of this study consisted of 1109 literate and illiterate parents that have wards in the six different government owned and grant-aided schools in Enugu urban area of Enugu educational zone in Enugu State.  A stratified random sampling was used to divide the entire Enugu urban area into six strata. A purposive sampling procedure was used to select six different schools in the area.  Descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation was used to answer all the research questions, while Chi-square test was used to test the hypothesis. The outcome of the results revealed that parental perception of the teaching of sex education is significantly negative. Parents perceived that teaching sex education to adolescent amounts to encouraging immorality in Enugu urban area of Enugu State. Based on the findings, there is need to educate parents about the concepts and areas that seem not to gain approval especially in topics related to sexual issues /problems of young people and the use of contraceptives and birth control methods. This will make it possible for students who are experiencing sexual health problems to get help. It is also necessary for the Government to train and employ guidance counsellors, health education teachers and nurses in schools to teach sex education.