Public Council of Education Ministry Against Placing Condom Vending Machines in Higher Educational Institutions

The Public Council on Matters of Cooperation with Churches and Religious Organizations attached to the Ministry of Education of Ukraine believes that the prevention of AIDS in Ukraine should be carried out through moral education.

KYIV – The Public Council on Matters of Cooperation with Churches and Religious Organizations attached to the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine believes that the prevention of AIDS in Ukraine should be carried out through moral education.

These and other urgent issues were discussed at the regular session of the council on June 22, 2010, under the chairmanship of a deputy Volodymyr Marushchenko, reports the Institute of Religious Freedom.

The participants considered the question of sex education and the progress in preventing AIDS in schools and higher educational institutions. Representatives of churches expressed concern over the fact that the government’s information campaign in this area in the recent years has been one-sided and is mainly aimed at propagating the use of condoms and excludes measures to educate children and youth in morals. The Public Council of the Ministry of Education supported the open letter of the heads of the Christian Churches on this problem.

“Combating AIDS is actually used as a pretext to propagate an immoral way of life and casual sexual relations,” noted Bishop Yevstratii (Zoria), the head of the Information and Publishing Department of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyivan Patriarchate.

The representatives of the Ministry of Education and Science present at the meeting agreed that the initiatives to introduce condom vending machines in the higher educational institutions, announced by the mass media, are not acceptable. According to them, rectors of institutions where this practice will be found need to be responsible for following the Law of Ukraine On Higher Education, which states that the educational process is primarily to ensure the moral, spiritual, and aesthetic development of a person.

The council also approved a national program in “Basics of the Christian Ethic” for pupils of 7-12^th grades of comprehensive secondary schools. The program is developed by representatives of the ministry, church, and scholars, and has now been forwarded to the Ministry of Education and Science to be granted appropriate status to be further used in the educational process.