Church schools objected to four questions on sexual behaviour but not to 19 more explicit ones four years ago.

Church schools did not object to explicit questions on sexual behaviour in the Maltese version of the 2002 survey of Health Behaviour in School Aged Children (HBSC), but objected to the broader questions in the 2006 survey.

In an article published in The Malta Independent on 21 April, a Curia spokesman said the survey was not carried out in Church schools “because of the way some questions were worded” and not because of the subject matter.

However, the 19 questions on sexual behaviour in the 2002 health surveys were not the standard questions found in the questionnaires distributed in the rest of the 34 countries, explained Health Promotion Unit’s Dr Mario Spiteri.

In 2002, the standard questions were modified and made more explicit by Health Promotion official Roderick Bugeja who was doing a post-graduate degree on sexual behaviour privately at the time.

The information collected was worthless to the HBSC study and to the World Health Organisation but was used for Mr Bugeja’s dissertation.

Since the questions on sexual behaviour were not the standard ones used in all countries, the results could not be compared and were useless, Dr Spiteri said.

A survey by the Health Promotion Unit carried out among secondary school students in Malta and Gozo was not allowed in Church schools this time round because the Church authorities “objected to the format of some questions” on sexual behaviour but not the subject matter itself.

The surveys were issued by the Health Promotion Department, with the approval of the Director General of Education, in all State and church schools between 20 and 24 March.

The report presents an overview of descriptive findings on key health and well-being measures and health related behaviours from HBSC – a 35 country cross-sectional survey of 11-, 13- and 15-year-olds, highlighting age transitions in health and examining gender differences.

“The main issue at stake is the inconsistency of the Church,” said Dr Spiteri. “If it gave the go ahead for those explicit questions to be answered in 2002, these broad questions should not have caused this uproar.”

Students in Church schools did not complete the questionnaire because the authorities objected to the wording of questions related to the students’ sexual preferences and activities.

However, Dr Spiteri pointed out the questions on sexual health in 2002 survey were more explicit than the questions in this year’s survey.

“Not only were the questions in 2002 more explicit, there were a total of 19 questions,” said Dr Spiteri. “There were only four questions in this year’s survey and these were extremely generic.”

A few of the 19 questions asked on the sexual activity of students, if they ever had anal sex or oral sex, if they were ever pregnant or made someone pregnant, if they used a condom or the contraceptive pill, used drugs or had alcohol before having sex.

“In 2002, the Church did not bat an eyelid at these questions and every single questionnaire from the Church schools was completed and returned to us,” said Dr Spiteri.

In the 2006 survey, there were only four questions on sexual behaviour. The questions asked if the students were sexually active, the age when intercourse took place, and what type of protection was used.

However, the Church objected to these four generic questions on sexual behaviour and told all their schools not to complete the questionnaire.

“Church schools were given the option to remove that particular page with the questions on sexual behaviour,” explained Health Promotion official Marianne Massa. “However, they decided not to do so and returned the questionnaires uncompleted.”

In a circular to all State schools on 15 March, the director of planning and development in the education division advised schools not to give the full survey to Form 1 students and to remove one of the pages.

“Please note that when the questionnaire is presented to Form 1 students, Page 17 should be removed. However, the whole booklet should be given to Form 5 students.

“In the case of Form 3 students, the removal or not of Page 17 is left to the discretion of the Head of School depending on the type of student being catered for in that particular school,” the circular said.

There were several objections that the students might not reply truthfully to impress their friends.

However, Ms Massa pointed out that the teachers were carefully briefed by the Health Promotion Department and that the questionnaires were filled in by the students under exam conditions.