Education officials said they will no longer block the installation of condom machines in public schools under their purview but would do nothing to encourage schools to allow them.
Reversing his recent promise to never allow the machines into schools, Kamol Rodklai of the Office of Basic Education Commission said schools could opt to receive the machines that the Ministry of Public Health wants to place in secondary schools to reverse an alarming trend of rising sexually transmitted infections and teen pregnancies.
READ: Schools refuse condoms as students get more STDs and babies
“We won’t argue if the machines are installed in schools where relevant parties and local communities believe they are needed,” Kamol said in The Nation today.
Kamol’s reversal is a partial win for good public health policy. Late last year health officials devised a four-year plan to make condoms available to all students age 13 and up to rein in teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.
Thailand has an exceptionally high rate of teen pregnancy.
However education officials have pushed back against the plan with discredited moral arguments that providing access to birth control and safer sex encourages sexual activity among youth. Generally speaking, youth itself is the compelling force encouraging sexual activity among youth.
Photo: Frank Kovalchek
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