The sexual education guides that the Ministry of Education provides teachers of public elementary schools and high schools in Costa Rica have raised controversy for several months, but this week, as students were scheduled to return to classes this became a bigger problem as parents from different education centers organized manifestations against these guides that made it impossible to open the schools.

Different representatives from the Ministry of Education have tried to dialogue with the groups of parents, the majority of them form the area of San Carlos, Alajuela, where 11 schools had to remain closed (other 4 schools remain closed in different areas of the country), and explained the reality about the content of the programs of “Comprehensive Affectivity and Sexuality”.

Sonia Marta Mora, Minister of Education, explained that the program contains mostly the same information since 2013, except for a few changes that were included regarding gender identity and that are geared only to high school students. The government institution is also respectful of the decision of parents of not allowing/wanting their child to take this class (as it happens also with religion classes), to do this parents just have to send a letter to the school asking not to include their child in the sexual ed. classes.

However, according to Mora, the controversy began because information was distributed through different social media channels, including WhatsApp, that was incomplete and in some cases “manipulated”.

“In all cases this is affecting elementary schools, were the program of Comprehensive Affectivity and Sexuality is not implemented. The confusion has been generated out of wrong or insufficient information that has lead some parents to believe that there are new programs”, commented the Minister, who continued “In elementary they learn about the human body and its parts, their right to protect their integrity, avoid violent situations, reproductive system, and changes that the body goes through as they become teens… Our programs in all subjects seek to promote respect and conciliation, while establishing an opposition against discrimination and hate”, concluded Mora.

In some cases, information that has been published in social media include screen shots only of the glossary of terms included in the guides, which contains information for the teachers’ reference only and with the purpose of being used as a guide on how different terms are defined by international organisms.

Meanwhile, statistics from the San Carlos Hospital show that in 2017 there were a total of 522 births of teens between the ages of 12-18, corresponding to almost 14% of the total number of births in this hospital, the number is higher if we take into account that 36 teens lost their baby by natural causes.

Although a lot of the opposition the guides have faces is unfounded and extreme, there are other cases in which some teachers and parents have spoken up about wanting the guides to also include information about the benefits of sexual abstinence and marriage.