Andrija Mladenović
A NECESSITY OR LUXURY: SEXUALITY EDUCATION IN SERBIA
In the previous period, the sexuality education as a topic vanished from the public discourse in Serbia. Neither political parties nor other societal agents display a particular interest in considering sexuality education. Should we exclude relatively weak advocacy actions from civil society and rather occasional, vociferous attacks from obscure right-wing political movements, sexuality education draws only minimum attention in Serbia whatsoever. Taking into account the alarmingly poor situation in Serbia in the context of reproductive health and family planning, previous findings might come across as surprising. Serbian normative framework, on the other hand, seems to recognize a dramatically decreasing level of reproductive health in Serbia. However, despite incorporating accurate analyses, the strategic framework very often fails to clearly set future actions and respective indicators, thus delaying changes to occur in the health and education system. However, it does not prevent the implementation of sexuality education either. Finally, based on a detailed examination of best practices across different world regions and the aforementioned conclusions it gathered, the paper provided recommendations for actions and steps to be undertaken to alleviate the introduction of sexuality education in Serbia.
