Pupils from south, central Moldova to learn from biology books donated by United Nations Population Fund

Chisinau, 14 January /MOLDPRES/ - The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has donated teaching materials worth over one million lei to pupils from 85 schools of Cahul, Rezina, Falesti, Ungheni, Orhei and the Chisinau municipality.    

According to UNFPA, the materials are provided free of charge to general education schools, in order to back the teaching of the biology discipline, as well as teaching of other disciplines which approach the teenagers’ health and development – compulsory discipline Personal Development and the optional discipline Education for Health. The latter one was revised in 2019 with UNFPA’s support.      

The materials provide information about the physical changes taking place in the adolescence in girls and boys, about the health of the reproductive system, contraception ways, in order to avoid an unplanned pregnancy, as well as the sexually transmissible infections, including HIV.    

The donation fits long-lasting efforts of UNFPA to support the education for health in schools of Moldova and comes as a continuation of the process of training of more than 1,100 teachers of biology or 75 per cent of all the teachers who teach this discipline, carried out by the Education Ministry in partnership with UNFPA.

The latest studies show that 13.3 per cent of the 15-years-old teenagers from Moldova and 34.7 per cent of 17-years-old ones are sexually active and only 62 per cent of them use preservatives. Without knowing how to prevent the risks dealing with the unprotected sexual relations, over 1,800 girls teenagers became mothers in 2020 and the rate of sexually transmissible infections, including HIV/AIDS, among young people remains quite high. Also, violent behaviors among young people are more and more frequent and their psychic and emotional health   worsened during the pandemic.    

Photo: UNFPA