Sen. Bam Aquino stressed the need to further strengthen sex education in schools after it was revealed that the Philippines “is the gold medalist” in Southeast Asia in terms of teen pregnancy.

 “We all agree that having sex education in schools is important,” said Sen. Bam during the hearing of the Committee on Education on the status of the implementation of reproductive health education in schools. 

Sen. Bam made the pronouncement after National Youth Commission (NYC) commissioner Percival Cendana revealed that every day, 600 girls aged 19 years and below give birth in the Philippines.

During the hearing, the Department of Education acknowledged the problem, saying the rising rate in teen pregnancy motivated the agency to implement a comprehensive sexuality education across the country.

DepEd Undersecretary Alberto Muyot said the agency has a total of 179 learning competencies for reproductive health education in the K-12 curriculum.

These learning competencies are currently undergoing a review process by the Bureau of Curriculum Development to make it attuned to present times.

Sen. Bam encouraged other groups to help the DepEd by contributing ideas that can improve the agency’s reproductive health education initiative.

 Sen. Bam filed Senate Resolution No. 169 amid the alarming rise in number of teen pregnancies in the country.