State education officials in Kerala are in a bind over how to get high school students to learn about sex without trampling on too many conservative toes.

The NCERT’s Adolescence Education Programme (AEP) for CBSE schools and its customised version developed by the State Council for Educational Research and Training (SCERT) have provoked considerable uproar.

Student outfits like the All India Democratic Students Organisation (AIDSO), Muslim Students Federation (MSF) and Kerala Students Union (KSU) have vowed to fight the programmes, though Left unions like the Students Federation of India (SFI) have stayed aloof.

The syllabus for the AEP, an adjunct of UNICEF’s anti-HIV campaign, is being seen by many as too explicit and even openly suggestive, and unfit for Kerala’s conservative ethos. The AIDSO has even alleged that the programme is an attempt to promote sex tourism through the back door.

What has rubbed detractors the wrong way are some of the contents spread over several teaching modules. These include teaching students that it’s a myth that homosexuality is abnormal and that it is only a matter of sexual preference, besides activity sessions to learn about sexual molestation and its prevention.

Questions like “When did you first have wet dreams? Did that change your approach to girls?” discussion themes like “Men can engage in sex with little children”, suggestions like the one implying sexual activity that does not involve actual intercourse is safe, have invited protests.

Even the role plays suggested, like teachers and students acting out the father and son dialogue on sexual FAQs, have run into rough weather.

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