Government To Distribute Free Condoms to School Children? Find out facts…

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A series of posts, stating several controversial statements and purporting to be decisions made by the Ministry of Education, recently went viral on social media. We conducted a fact-check to determine the accuracy of these statements.

Social Media Posts:

These viral posts claimed that schools were providing free textbooks, free school uniforms, free lunch, and even free condoms.

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We took steps to investigate whether such a decision had, in fact, been made by the Ministry of Education.

Fact Check:

We first checked whether the mainstream media had reported that the government was implementing a program to distribute condoms to school students. However, since there was no such news report, we inquired with the Ministry of Education for further insights.

Ministry of Education

The ministry confirmed that the news that condoms will be distributed to school students is entirely false and that no such decision has been taken. 

The Ministry of Education points out that there have been discussions between the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health regarding the introduction of condom use into the Grade 10 school curriculum to teach HIV and Sexually Transmitted Infection (STI) prevention measures in the classroom. However, no decision has been taken in this regard.

National STD and AIDS Control Campaign

WE contacted Ms Vino Dharmakulasinghe, the STD Specialist at the National STD and AIDS Control Campaign.

The doctor pointed out that the Ministry of Health’s National STD/AIDS Control Program recently recommended that preventive measures, including condom use, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP), should be formally introduced to students. 

The National Institute of Education accordingly proposed that the Grade 10 science textbook provide age-appropriate, evidence-based knowledge to fill the gaps in the syllabus. 

However, she confirmed that the Ministry of Education has not yet agreed to this. She also noted that the recommendations they presented did not include a measure to provide condoms to school students, but only that formal education should be provided on this issue. She noted that various false information are being published on this topic.

Meanwhile, it reports that the current government is providing Rs. 5,000 to children for entertainment, which was also investigated, as mentioned in some of the above-mentioned social media posts, which were linked to a statement made by Minister Bimal Rathnayake in Parliament on September 24. The Minister states that he once told Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya that, if possible, after the Advanced Level exams, children should be given Rs. 5000 to watch a film or a play. You can refer to that statement for more information.

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