The Significance of Implementing Sex Education Curriculum within the Higher Education Setting in Saudi Arabia

The Significance of Implementing Sex Education Curriculum within the
Higher Education Setting in Saudi Arabia

The Significance of Implementing Sex Education Curriculum with Higher Education Settings in Saudi Arabia
Though sex is one of the most important elements of life as it is linked to continuity and pleasure; however, people’s understanding of it is quite poor. Its primary reason is that in both liberal and conservative societies, sex is a very sensitive and taboo subject. Consequently, the sex-related violence and problems are enormous in these societies. For instance, several studies on the subject (sex) have found that the poor understanding of sex is correlated strongly and positively with numerous undesired societal outcomes such as teen birth rate in liberal societies (Carter, 2012). In conservative societies, it is associated robustly and positively with risky sexual behavior, sexual violence, and sexual health problems (Alsubaie, 2019). To address the mentioned issues that are associated with a flawed/poor understanding of sex, many liberal societies are having sex education obligatory at the high-school level.
In my informed opinion, Saudi Arabia should also have sex education part of its overall educational curriculum as societal problems pertaining to sex are quite common in its conservative society. For instance, the study by Noura Horanieh et al. (2021) has found that sexual violence and health issues are very rampant in Saudi Arabia because of flawed/poor understanding of sex among adolescents and adults, which in return has put their lives at serious risk (Horanieh, Macdowall, & Wellings, 2020). Since Saudi Arabia is a very traditional society based on Islamic principles, it will require a strategy to have sex education part of its overall educational curriculum. Also, Saudi Arabia will have to involve all the relevant stakeholders to realize the objective as without their active and positive participation, it will be very difficult to realize the objective. In Saudi Arabia’s case, major stakeholders in implementing sex education are 1) parents, 2) ministry of education, 3) educational institutions, and 4) religious scholars/leaders.
Questions for the Dissertation
General Research Question-1: What are the benefits of implementing sex education in higher education sitting in Saudi Arabia?
General Research Question-2: Can Saudi Arabia address different sex-related societal problems by having sex education mandatory at different educational levels/institutions?
General Research Question-3: Would Saudi Arabia require a strategy to implement sex education across different educational levels/institutions?
General Research Question-4: Would Saudi Arabia require active participation of relevant stakeholder for implementing sex education in the country?