'The government has decided to stop sex education provided under the adolescent education programme in its present form in the schools. The chief minister has instructed the school education department to stop imparting sex education and informed the union Human Resource Development - Minister Arjun Singh about it.

Whereas sex education or sexuality education or sex and relationships education, is the process of acquiring information and forming attitudes and beliefs about sex, sexual identity, relationships and intimacy. Sex education is also about developing young people's skills so that they make informed choices about their behaviour, and feel confident and competent about acting on these choices.

It is widely accepted that young people have a right to sex education, partly because it is a means by which they are helped to protect themselves against abuse, exploitation, unintended pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS. Sex education seeks both to reduce the risks of potentially negative outcomes from sexual behaviour like unwanted or unplanned pregnancies and infection with sexually transmitted diseases, and to enhance the quality of relationships.

It is also about developing young people's ability to make decisions over their entire lifetime. Sex education that works, by which we mean that it is effective, is sex education that contributes to this overall aim. If sex education is going to be effective it needs to include opportunities for young people to develop skills, as it can hard for them to act on the basis of only having information.

The kinds of skills young people develop as part of sex education are linked to more general life-skills. For example, being able to communicate, listen, negotiate, ask for and identify sources of help and advice, are useful life-skills and can be applied in terms of sexual relationships. Effective sex education develops young people's skills in negotiation, decision-making, assertion and listening. Other important skills include being able to recognise pressures from other people and to resist them, deal with and challenge prejudice, seek help from adults - including parents, carers and professionals - through the family, community and health and welfare services. Sex education that works, also helps equip young people with the skills to be able to differentiate between accurate and inaccurate information, discuss a range of moral and social issues and perspectives on sex and sexuality, including different cultural attitudes and sensitive issues like sexuality, abortion and contraception.

This follows instructions from Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who was upset amid protests against graphics and pictorial descriptions used in the course material provided under the adolescent education programme -. The National AIDS Control Organisation - funds AEP. While 19 of the 48 districts in the state were covered under the first phase, 11 more were brought under its purview this year. The union government has devaluated Indian culture and its values. I believe that the text material on the subject was not submitted before you in a proper manner or else you would have not approved it,' C.M. has written to the HRD minister.

'Instead, the younger generation should be taught about yoga, Indian culture and its values. Some 3,000 of the 8,000 schools in the state were covered under AEP, which was quite successful in sensitising the students on several topics on biological changes during adolescence and on AIDS. But the controversy created by some groups, including the Congress and a section of teachers, over the alleged explicit material in the teaching kit forced the government to close it. These groups claimed it was too early for Class 9 and 11 students to study about sex. C.M. reportedly called a meeting of principal secretaries of the school education and the health departments Thursday, following which it was decided that AEP should be ended in the state. State AIDS Control Society chairperson Salina Singh's statement before the chief minister explaining the importance of AEP that would be an effective tool to create awareness about AIDS and HIV did not work,' an official said.