Sabang Tells Schoolchildren to Assess Genital Size

BY NURDIN HASAN (THE JAKARTA GLOBE)

Banda Aceh, TAG –  Parents in Aceh’s Weh island were demanding answers from education officials on Wednesday after it emerged that children as young as 12 were told to fill in a survey that included questions about the size of their genitals and whether they had experienced any sexual dreams.

“Actually there was no problem with the questionnaire, but I was very shocked when I opened page five and saw images of women’s breasts and female and male genitalia,” Nurlina, a mother of a student at Sabang 1 State Junior High School, told the Jakarta Globe on Wednesday.

Nurlina said that the page in question included pictures of male and female genitals of varying size and asked the student to circle whichever they felt was the closest approximation to their own.

In addition, boys were asked whether they had experienced a “wet dream,” and girls were asked to assess the size of their breasts. Children as young as 12 were told to complete the survey.

Misman, the head of the Sabang Education Agency confirmed that the questionnaire had been distributed to six junior high schools in Sabang, Indonesia’s westernmost city with a population of around 30,000.

He said the local education body had included the questions on the recommendation of local health officials. “It was a recommendation from Puskesmas [community health center] to collect information on the children’s health,” he said.

Nurlina was not persuaded by the view that the authorities’ efforts to document the health of Sabang’s children necessitated asking the kinds of questions with the attendant visual aids found in the survey .

“There were also questions as to whether or not the girls have menstruated and if the boys have experienced sexual dreams,” she said. “Those questions were meant for children who have just graduated from elementary school — that’s improper.”

Nurlina, a civil servant in Sabang, prohibited her child from answering those questions and said she would file a complaint to the school and the local education office.

“The teachers should have checked the questionnaires before they were distributed to see if the pages came with indecent images,” she said.

Misman said the schools distributed similar questionnaires last year but there was no public outcry because the questions were not accompanied by a set of pictures.

“[The surveys] have been distributed and some of them have been returned because children did not want to answer that particular page,” he said.

“After I saw the questionnaires I can see not only that they asked about their genital sizes, but that there were some very vivid images of genitals —  this is too vulgar.”

Misman said his office would discuss the issue with Sabang’s mayor to find the best solution.[]