ABSTRACT of Thesis by
Carmen K. Mizzi; Marilyn Mizzi & Michelle Mizzi

"One can not fail to be struck by the importance of the first impressions and experiences, which continue to play a decisive part in the whole subsequent development of sexual and effective life… (thus) the sex education of children is even more important than that of adolescence , for this, to a great extent, is determined by it."

One of reasons why we dealt with this issue was because while many like Berge, recognise the need for sexuality education in the primary school, little is being done locally. In fact the main aim of our thesis is to see if a sample of the Maltese and Gozitan population feel the need for sexuality education to be implemented in local primary schools.

Our study focused on the feelings and views of parents and teachers as regards sexuality education in our primary schools, since we could not deal with the children directly. We found that although a number of parents and teachers do try to educate their children regarding sexuality, they feel that this is not enough, and so the majority of the parents and teachers feel the need for sexuality education in our primary schools.

The authors, as future teachers, feel responsible for the development of children in all aspects, and thus sincerely feel the need for our children to be educated regarding sexuality, a feeling that was further enhanced by the results our research.

We hope that the findings of this research will not only help awaken an awareness of the need for sexuality education in primary schools, but also encourage parents, teachers and those concerned with the education of our children to insist that this need be catered for.

B.Ed.(Hons)
May 2003

Keywords:- Sexuality; Development; Children; Need; Education; Local Situation