Part two of a report on sex education in Guam’s public school system<\/p>\n

By Elizabeth Wells
\nFor Triton\u2019s Call<\/p>\n

The Guam Department of Education (GDOE) has implemented sexual education into the health curriculum for high school students with the Safer Choices program, a component of the federal Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP). The PREP program is part of a competitive grant under the Affordable Care Act.<\/p>\n

The three-year PREP grant, totaling $387,158, was instituted in high schools in 2013 on a \u201ctrial-basis,\u201d said Paul Nededog, project director of Curriculum and Instructional Improvement for GDOE. The program was then fully implemented for the next two years.<\/p>\n

With the implementation of the Safer Choices program, Nededog said the high school administrators and GDOE management have begun to address the problem of high teen pregnancy rates and high risk youth behavior on Guam.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir drive is to justify and make commitments to continuing the implementation of the Safer Choices Program, to build capacity and developing program strategies more effectively, to improve the health curriculum through the following school years,\u201d Nededog said. \u201cWe also have calls from the schools and discussions with GDOE management to continue and have sustainability of the program after the PREP grant ends on Sept. 29, 2016.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the Federal Department of Health and Human Services\u2019 executive summary for the PREP program, the program\u2019s purpose \u201cis to support projects that educate youth between the ages of 10 and 19, and pregnant and parenting youth, under the age 21, on abstinence and contraception for the prevention of pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV\/AIDS.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Safer Choice component overview of lessons and activities provided by Nededog includes requirements for both abstaining from sex and practicing proper use of contraceptives.<\/p>\n

The program was integrated into the health curriculum for high schools in 2013, but has not been added to the standard curriculum for the Guam Public School System. Nededog said sexual education within the curriculum is all funding-based.<\/p>\n

Nededog explained the reason some students may have reported lack of education on these matters is because the program has only been integrated into the health program within the last three years. High school students are required to take health class in order to graduate, and the majority of students do so in their freshman or sophomore year.<\/p>\n

The program is \u201cevidence-based\u201d and Nededog said GDOE received positive feedback from the past three years. The PREP Performance Measures exit survey reported that 54 percent of the 2,121 students surveyed were much less likely to have sexual intercourse in the next six months, 36 percent reported being much more likely to use a condom, and 27 percent reported being much more likely to use birth control.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really great that school administrators saw the results and continued to implement the program,\u201d Nededog said.<\/p>\n

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