ISLAMABAD, Dec 5: A major segment of the population lacks knowledge about the environment and rights and more disturbingly about their own bodies. This lack of information often results in confidence deficit and guilt and they are not at ease with themselves.

This was the crux of the concluding session of a two-day national learning forum on ‘Life Skills-Based Education’ (LSBE), organised by World Population Foundation in partnership with Plan Pakistan and Aahang, an NGO, here on Friday.

The forum was aimed at modifying the existing LSBE programmes into culturally sensitive sexual and reproductive health education and standardisation of improved LSBE-SRHE curriculum and its integration in national curriculum.

The idea was to take the introductory event last year a step ahead and carry forward the initiative of explaining ‘What is sexuality education and why is it important for Pakistani youth.’

The evaluations of the LSBE programmes worldwide have proven that it is the most effective for changing youth’s behaviours positively, if it encompasses all necessary information about sexuality, the participants observed.

The LSBE plays a key role in not merely informing young people about the realities of life but also equipping them with the confidence and fervour to meet the world in the eye and effectively take up challenges of practical life.

The two-day event brought together organisations working on the LSBE across the country, the public sector, major donors and media in a bid to share and learn from each other's experiences in order to make headway in the right direction. Qadeer Baig, country representative, of the World Population Foundation highlighted the fact that quite often Life Skills-Based Education is rejected on religious pretext.

However, Islam as a religion is very forward looking and there is no evidence that it forbids impartation of such knowledge, he added. Mr Baig further said it was the prevalent cultural norms that created misconceptions about the stance of religion on sex education and created hurdles in its propagation.

It was recommended in the forum that sex education should be started with children at an early age, perhaps the age of six. Incidences of sexual abuse are being seen in children of a very young age so child needs to be made aware of it early in life.

Around 60 participants including government officials and representatives of leading organisations working on the LSBE including UN agencies, civil society and NGOs shared their experience in the forum.

In light of this it was debated as to how such cultural barriers could be overcome to maximise the outreach of LSBE programmes in the country and to ensure that effective communication, that is culturally sensitive can be imparted to have maximum effectiveness.