Jakarta – The Health Minister will reevaluate its policy of requiring high school students to record the shape and size of their genitalia for their health status reports following a public outcry.
"We will evaluate the genitalia health check for students and consult with academics and also children's rights activists," Health Ministry director of children's health Elizabeth Jane Soepardi said on Saturday.
Elizabeth said that the ministry was surprised at the public's hostile reaction to the program, which had been in place since 2010. She said that the plan was part of a program to record reproductive health status during adolescent years by providing questionnaire, that had pictures of genitalia to students.
"The questionnaires not only have genitalia pictures but also other information related to student health, lifestyle and family health history," she said.
Elizabeth said such information was crucial given that during puberty teenagers experienced biological changes of which many were unaware.
"Teenagers will have lots of questions about their bodies and they will experience serious emotional changes during this transition period. That's why we need to help them with knowledge on healthy habits, including the introduction of sexual and reproductive issues," she said.
A 2012 report from the Health Ministry showed a nationwide increase in high-risk behavior including smoking, drinking and sexual activity among adolescents, which could lead to health problems like HIV/AIDS.
"Teenagers could be prone to HIV/AIDS without sufficient information on sexual and reproductive health," Elizabeth said. She added that the country also has a serious problem with early marriages, which could contribute to an increase in infant mortality rates.
Data from the 2012 Indonesia Demographic and Health Survey shows that the age-specific fertility rate for women aged 15 to 19 years old was 48, which decreases only five points within five years.
"It's a slow progress. So, we need to step it up through an improved national school health program, one of which is by educating junior and high school students to know their bodies well through questionnaires," she said.
Separately, the Indonesian Teachers Association's (PGRI) chairman, Sulistyo praised the Ministry of Health's move to promote a healthy lifestyle among students.
However, the government needed to consult teachers, parents and students before the program kicked off, he said. "We have discussed the program with teachers and most of them had no information about these questionnaires. I'm afraid that the lack of information will only cause confusion among students," he said.
Lidia, a teacher from junior high school SMP 2 Bawang in Banjarnegara, Central Java said the majority of schools already had sexual and reproductive health lessons. "These questionnaires are redundant," she said. (tam)