 activist calls for teachers code to prohibit lgbt discrimination activist calls for teachers code to prohibit lgbt discrimination activist calls for teachers code to prohibit lgbt discrimination webmaster tue 2062018 46 the ministry of education s code of conduct for teachers should be amended to prohibit discrimination against youth on the grounds of sexual orientation director of the society against sexual orientation discrimination sasod joel simpson has recommended simpson was at the time offering suggestions on how to decrease the high school dropout rate within the lesbian gay bisexual and transgender lgbt community during a presentation at the university of guyana s latest turkeyen and tain talks held last wednesday at the pegasus hotel the theme for the event was education as freedom education reform and socioeconomic development in guyana simpson who represented the guyana equality forum which is a civil society network of 21 local groups working to achieve equal rights and justice for guyanese focused on policies that could decrease the number of lgbt youth and teenaged mothers who are subjected to bullying and who are forced out of the education system annually in addressing the former simpson recommended a widening of the ministry of education s code of conduct for teachers which already states that teachers cannot discriminate on the grounds of ability race colour or creed simpson stated that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation exists not only among peers but in teacherstudent relationships and said that the trend of behaviour has been documented by sasod and the guyana teachers union gtu he mentioned that these behaviours are usually displayed in the plain view of witnesses the ministry of education s policy on their website titled code of conduct for teachers under part d commitment to students states teachers cannot discriminate on the grounds of ability race colour or creed it does not have any protective clause in it for lgbt students while no laws or policies exist that specifically prevent lgbt persons from accessing education many lgbt guyanese reportedly leave the education system early due to homophobic and transphobic bullying and discrimination thereby preventing them from practically realising their right to education he stated reintegration of schoolaged mothers additionally simpson directed the audience to the fact that guyana holds the second highest rate of teenaged pregnancy in the latin america and the caribbean region it is documented that 97 out of every 1000 girls between 15 and 19 years old give birth despite this the government of guyana is yet to introduce a comprehensive reintegration policy for pregnant and parenting adolescent girls to be able to continue their secondary education in public schools he noted he added that adolescent mothers are often denied their right to education and fall out of the system as a result simpson recommended that guyana look to jamaica for an example of how to tackle this issue while pointing to the women s centre of jamaica foundation programme wcjf for adolescent mothers which was established as a result of the country s high teenage pregnancy rate at the time he related that the centre offers support services which include counselling for schoolaged mothers the fathers of their children their parents and even guardians family planning time management and budgeting wcjf s programme for adolescent mothers encourages the continued education of pregnant or lactating girls under the age of 17 years the goals are for teen mothers to return to school after the birth of their babies to delay a second pregnancy until their professional goals are achieved and to raise the employment potential of young mothers so that they have a viable alternative to depending on men for support simpson related inadequate sex education meanwhile simpson criticized the public sex education programme stating that it lacks relevance denies sexual and reproductive health information and services and is inadequate for meeting the needs of adolescents grpa guyana responsible parenthood association evaluations of the publiclyfunded and implemented abstinenceonly programme commonly known as the health and family life education hfle found that it ignores young people s basic right to the highest attainable standard of health by denying them critical lifesaving information and the fundamental public health principle of accurate balanced sex education he related simpson said that research done by the grpa shows that comprehensive sexuality education cse can actually delay the onset of sexual activity reduce risky sexual behaviour and the number of sexual partners and increase responsible behavior particularly when it came to protecting against sexuallytransmitted infections and unwanted pregnancies importantly the evidence shows youth who receive cse are not more likely to become sexually active increase sexual activity or experience negative sexual health outcomes contrary to what others may believe also research by the youthled international organisation advocates for youth shows that cse programmes do not encourage teens to start having sexual intercourse do not increase the frequency with which teens have intercourse and do not increase the number of a teen s sexual partners he stated he added that evaluations of hfle on the other hand showed that the programme ignores young people s basic human right to the highest attainable standard of health by denying them critical lifesaving information and the fundamental public health principle of accurate balanced sex education article adapted from  https wwwstabroeknewscom 2018 news stories 204 activistcallsforteacherscodetoprohibitlgbtdiscrimi  lgbt turkeyen tain talks educational reform 