The Catholic Church in Papua New Guinea will not make condoms available at its schools for students and teachers as required by a new policy on HIV/AIDS soon to be enforced by the national Education Department.
The decision taken by the recent annual general meeting of the Catholic Bishops Conference in Kokopo is final.
“Although the document issued by the Education Department is positive in more than one sense, we cannot be forced to follow a policy that conflicts with our philosophy of education,” Archbishop Francesco Panfilo of Rabaul, deputy bishop for education, said.
“The Catholic church sees the open and wide distribution of condoms as a go-signal to students (or young people) for further sexual misbehaviour before and outside marriage.
“If a school gives a biro and a book to a student, the message behind it is simple, ‘education’.
“But, if it gives condoms, the message for students will just be ‘go out and feel free to do whatever you want’, Bomana De La Salle Secondary School principal, James Ume said at a meeting of Catholic school head teachers in March.
The Education Department believes there is no way to fully control the sexual behaviour of students and claims that a high rate of HIV/AIDS infection in recent years had been reported among the students.
The Catholic church believes that education legislation in the country implied that families and school boards should be the ones to deal with issues such as HIV/AIDS.
“It is good that in this draft, parents are now more than passive recipients in the policy,” Fr Paul Jennings of the St Joseph International College in Boroko said.
“However, parents are the first teachers and have the responsibility for the behaviour of their children.
“The policy should do more than ‘maintain partnerships’ with parents. It could and should empower parents to be active agents in behavioural change.”
Questioned about the possibility of the Catholic Church being challenged in court by the government over its decision, Archbishop Panfilo said “this would be an opportunity for us to prove that the National Education Act is being disregarded by the government”.
Via – The National