The gaps in Costa Rica’s sex education—and what they mean for teen pregnancies

I’ll tell you this up front: the strange thing about this story is the silence.

There’s nothing strange about curricular reforms. It’s normal for a presidential administration, a political party, or simply a new moment in a country’s history to elicit a new approach. And small adjustments and changes are never-ending, because there’s no magic bullet—something that researching this story on sex education in Costa Rica has made abundantly clear to me.

In 2025, Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves announced the elimination of the Program for Education on Integral Affectivity and Sexuality (PASI), which had its start in 2012. A common narrative among those who criticized the decision is that the president was discarding a program that had slashed Costa Rica’s teenage pregnancy rate. However, even some of the program’s biggest promoters explain that it’s not that simple: the PASI was one of several interventions implemented during the years in which teen pregnancies fell. A causal relationship has not been proven for each factor. And conversations with experts, educators, and students demonstrate that, like any curriculum, the discontinued program had both its strengths and weaknesses.

Nor can it be said that sex ed has been completely eliminated in Costa Rica: the new program, called Education for Peace and Coexistence, does retain some content on sexuality. And the results of the various teacher training efforts on sex ed in previous years cannot be erased overnight.

In other words, there’s a lot to learn here, and many gray areas. None of that surprised me. As a solutions journalist, I study responses to problems, with all their strengths and weaknesses. We always explore the lessons to be learned through each initiative. Sometimes, the research process is tough.

But I don’t recall any other story, in my 22 years in Costa Rica, where the relevant ministries refused to grant me an interview, much less when I had more than a month to arrange one. After weeks of attempts, the Ministry of Public Education sent me a few paragraphs by email with very basic information; the Ministry of Health sent nothing more than a confirmation of receipt.

And I definitely don’t recall any other story, of all the ones I’ve written about education, where educators have asked me not to use their names or identifying characteristics in my report. The reason? They say they fear being fired for speaking about sex education, due to the taboos they perceive within the institution itself.

What was achieved—and what wasn’t achieved—by the Program for Education on Integral Affectivity and Sexuality implemented in Costa Rica between 2012 and 2025?

What do educators and students think about sex education in Costa Rica, and the new programs whose creation began with the administration of President Rodrigo Chaves (2022-2026) and are now being implemented by the Cabinet minister he selected to campaign as his successor—President Laura Fernández (2026-2030)?

And why so much silence?

First things first: let’s look at the rights in question.

When you think about sex ed in Costa Rica, what milestones come to mind? Maybe you think about events that have unfolded over the past 15 years. There was the introduction in 2012, under the leadership of Education Minister Leonardo Garnier, of the teaching guides that would become the PASI program; the protests over the program and its updates that shook the country in 2018, when parents in some areas put chains over school entrances; and the announcement, in 2026, by the Chaves administration, that the PASI had been eliminated because of its “eroticism,” and that it would be replaced by what is now taught in classrooms: the Education for Peace and Coexistence Program.

But of course, it goes much further back than that. And furthermore, in Costa Rica, sexuality education is not something a government can simply grant or deny. It is a right the country has assumed for its citizens through a series of international commitments, and structured into policies that began long before 2012.

In an article “Sex education in Costa Rica: Tensions and advances in the first decades of the 21st century“ (Universidad Nacional, 2022), María Luisa Preinfalk Fernández notes that “the first state efforts to educate the population about sexuality emerged in the 1960s, with the primary goal of controlling birth rates.” However, she explains that it did not become public policy until this century.

In 2000, María Luisa explains, Costa Rica had already signed several global agreements related to sex education, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW, 1984), and several others. And in 1998, Costa Rica approved its Code on Children and Adolescents, which “establishes the State’s obligation to formulate national educational policies on sex education and the commitment of educational authorities to implement programs on preventive, sexual, and reproductive health.”

From international commitments to policy

It was in this context that the Superior Council on Education, which must approve all programs of study in Costa Rica, approved the Comprehensive Education Policies on the Expression of Human Sexuality in 2001.

María Luisa characterizes these policies as “revolutionary” at the time and explains that they were generated during a period of “rising rates of early pregnancies, low contraceptive use during first sexual intercourse among adolescents, earlier initiation of sexual activity, and a lack of knowledge surrounding topics such as a woman’s fertile period and HIV/AIDS,” among other factors. (In 2000, 611 births were registered to girls aged 14 or younger, and 15,999 to adolescents between 15 and 19 years old, according to data presented by the National Institute of Statistics and Census, or INEC, and the United Nations Population Fund, UNFPA).

That policy, still in effect today, declares that education is “mandatory and cross-cutting” in basic general education.

Many books could be written about everything that happened from then on; María Luisa chronicles this in detail. For our purposes here, perhaps it is enough to say that there were several initiatives by the MEP, complaints about a lack of progress, and conflicts with the country’s Catholic leadership, among other events.

From policy to required class

However, in 2012—a year in which pregnancies among girls and adolescents, after some reductions, were rising again, reaching 522 among girls aged 14 and under and 13,672 among those aged 15-19—Education Minister Leonardo Garnier implemented a significant change in the approach. Instead of allowing each teacher to incorporate the topic into their own subject matter at some point during the year, a program was created that would be taught once a week, replacing one of the five science lessons.

Although the PASI would come to be associated with a reduction in the teenage pregnancy rate that would occur in the following years, the former minister explains that the PASI really didn’t emerge as a reaction to teenage pregnancy rates. Rather, it was part of a broader effort to improve education for citizenship and coexistence in Costa Rica.

Leonardo says that when he became Education Minister in 2006—he served during two consecutive governments, those of Oscar Arias and Laura Chinchilla—his team found an urgent need for this in Costa Rica’s schools.

“It’s clear that you need a curricular and pedagogical strategy to learn math, Spanish, or science, but there was absolutely nothing on learning to live together,” he says. As part of that development, which included art and music education, Leonardo’s team began working on the topic of sex—buoyed by an important piece of data from a Sexual and Reproductive Health Survey carried out by the Ministry of Health in 2010.

“One of the questions was for adults: whether they agreed that sex education should be increased in schools,” he recalls. “And roughly 95% of the people interviewed said yes… That relieved me of a huge worry. [We said]–well then, let’s implement sex ed!”Comment from an anonymous online survey conducted by El Colectivo 506 in July 2026. “In my classroom, instead of a serious topic that was treated responsibly, it was like a joke, sometimes with taunting or shame,” says this student, who attended a public high school in Poás, Alajuela, from 2020-2024. “That’s why they made horrible jokes. The teacher sometimes couldn’t even teach the class.”

The team knew from the start that they didn’t want to focus solely on the risks and dangers of sex.

“Human beings care about sexuality for many more reasons than just avoiding illness or pregnancy,” says Leonardo. “There are few things that interest people more than sex… Let’s create a course not only on sexual health, but also on sexuality and relationships.”

According to Leonardo, the decision to place sex education lessons in science classes stemmed from a hope that these teachers would be more open to the topic due to their training. The team decided to start with lessons for seventh, eighth, and ninth grade, expecting to add tenth and eleventh grade later. They also hoped to eventually bring the program to elementary school as well.

From required class to family decision

Leonardo recounts that, before the PASI was approved, a journalist once asked him if he was going to consult the program with the Conference of Bishops, or Conferencia Episcopal.

“I told him, ‘We didn’t consult the Conference about the math program. Why would we consult them about sexuality?… Besides, the bishops aren’t supposed to know anything about that topic.’” Approval was obtained from the Superior Council on Education. But when implementation began—which consisted of pilot programs to test and adjust the curriculum, teacher training, and full implementation—the PASI faced some 30,000 legal challenges before the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court, or Sala IV.

“If a family believes these programs go against their beliefs, their morals, and so on, they can send a letter and ask their children not to attend,” says Leonardo, explaining the ruling by the Constitutional Court. “Deep down, I think this is wrong, because if I want all of society to have a healthier sex life, I need everyone to go through the process… But the moment the Court says, ‘This is not mandatory,’ the excuse of the most conservative people to [oppose the PASI] disappeared.”

In the end, very few students were left out of the classes.

“No teenager in school is going to say they want to skip sex ed. Are you kidding? I mean, it’s ridiculous. So I calmed down about that,” he remembers. “I said, ‘It’s a release valve.’ And at that moment, only 2% of students brought a letter saying they wouldn’t attend the class.”

Leonardo Garnier readily admits that the program’s impact wasn’t evaluated as it should have been—more on that in a moment. But he says he received a lot of qualitative feedback in meetings with students.

“The typical sex ed program is about sexual and reproductive health—that is, the risks of sexuality, sexually transmitted diseases, teenage pregnancy, and how to prevent it,” says Leonardo. “Sexuality is much more than that… [I could] hear the kids, and especially the girls, talking about how their image of sex had changed, and even their view of themselves.”

In one of those sessions, a 13- or 14-year-old student told the Minister: “Now I finally understand what it means to be a woman. My mother and her friends, whenever I said I was a woman, would always tell me, ‘Wait until you have children to see what it means to be a woman.’ I finally understood in class that you don’t need to have children to be a woman. I am a woman even though I don’t have children.”

“Of course, there are some teachers who are better than others,” says Leonardo. “I have no doubt that in some places it must have been catastrophic, right? But in general, the feedback we got from the students was that they liked the course.”

A more robust evaluation came in 2015. Oscar Valverde, director of the Paniamor Foundation, explains that the next Minister of Education, Sonia Marta Mora, upon joining the Ministry of Public Education (MEP) as part of the administration of President Luis Guillermo Solís in 2014, wanted to evaluate and strengthen the program. Oscar co-authored a study with Laura Sánchez Calvo, supported by the National Institute for Women (INAMU). They conducted surveys and focus groups with science teachers, school counselors, and students from a random sample of 90 schools, 30% of the total, with at least one school in each Regional Education Directorate across the country.

Of the students surveyed, 74% indicated that they had received their weekly lessons from the program, and the teachings were well rated by them: 72.4% said that the classes had improved some aspect of their lives related to sexuality.

Which topics had they learned about the most, and which the least? The most frequently mentioned were sexuality in general, dating, sexually transmitted diseases, sexual relations, and violence; the least frequently mentioned were “homosexuality, genitalia, pornography, and promiscuity.”

And the pregnancy rate? What really happened?

During the years in which the PASI program was implemented, the pregnancy rate among girls and adolescents decreased dramatically. In 2012, 522 births were registered to girls aged 14 or younger, and 13,672 to adolescents between 15 and 19 years old. By 2020, these numbers had fallen to 222 and 5,920.

But what leads to an underage pregnancy? There are several factors. The information she has received about her rights and reproductive health is certainly one of them, but so is her access to academic and economic opportunities, her attention or lack thereof in the health system, the family environment, the laws surrounding the issue, and more.

“All the relevant stakeholders in this country who are knowledgeable about this matter agree that there are three or four factors… that acted together in the decline of the teen pregnancy rate,” says Oscar. “Because that rate had a massive decrease.”

What were those factors? The PASI program; the Mesoamerica Project, which expanded long-acting contraceptive options for adolescents, and which Oscar describes as “one of the best public policy decisions ever made in this country”; the change in guidelines by the Costa Rican Social Security Fund so that adolescents could access contraceptives starting at age 10; and, the most recent of these factors, the 2017 approval of the Law on Improper Relationships. (It imposed new penalties for adults who have sex with minors; prohibited the registration of marriages between minors; and raised the minimum age of consent, among other measures.)

But while it’s impossible to pinpoint exactly which of those elements affected each situation, Oscar clearly states that the PASI program played an essential role and that, for him, its elimination jeopardizes the progress made. It’s a bit like removing a block from a Jenga game—and according to Oscar, since the sex ed program was among the first to be implemented, it probably catalyzed other elements.

“Listen carefully to what I’m about to say,” he says. “We managed to reduce teen pregnancy by a third with these decisions, which are also linked. If we eliminate one of these decisions, be careful, or they might affect the others.”

What didn’t work?

The PASI study that Oscar conducted with Laura Sánchez and INAMU in 2015 did not evaluate student knowledge; it focused on compiling their comments about the program. However, Patricia Arias Salas carried out a learning assessment of a subgroup of students who had received the PASI classes as part of her thesis at the University of Costa Rica’s Western Campus in 2024. She applied a questionnaire to 171 of the 600 first-year students at her campus about what they had learned in secondary education.

“The results indicate confusion regarding basic terminology, as well as a lack of knowledge about sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and contraceptive methods,” Patricia writes. Furthermore, 12.2% of the group indicated that they “never received classes or talks” on this topic—a finding consistent with the INAMU study, where 9.04% of science teachers reported that they had never offered sex ed classes, despite their mandatory nature.

When Patricia’s survey asked the 171 students which sources had provided them with “a lot of information” about sexuality, the largest group—87, or 50.9% of the sample—chose “the internet and social media.” Teachers? Only 7.6%.

That aligns with what the same students told El Colectivo 506. In response to reporting limitations explained in the next section, we conducted an open online survey for anyone who was a student at the school during the years in question. Although the 71 responses are by no means a significant sample, the variety of answers—from various parts of the country and types of institutions—showed that students who experienced the PASI program, and those who are now receiving the new program, had varied experiences.

“My experience was bad. The science teachers aren’t trained to teach these classes, and they aren’t impartial either… one teacher (a man) started explaining how a man or woman should moan. I think these programs are necessary, but they need to be taught responsibly and with information that’s actually useful,” says someone who attended a public school in Guácimo, Limón, from 2020-2025.

“In my classroom, rather than being taken seriously and responsibly, it was treated as a joke, and sometimes even with mockery or shame. That’s why some horrible jokes were made. Sometimes the teacher couldn’t teach the class,” says someone who attended a public school in Poás, Alajuela, from 2020-2024.

“The truth is that they did answer my questions,” says another person who attended a public school in Paraíso, Cartago, from 2020 to 2024. “I think that these types of classes should be taught to both genders, because most of the time these kinds of talks are given only to women, and men are left out. I think that everyone should have this information.”

The authors of the 2015 INAMU study, Oscar Valverde and Laura Sánchez, created a series of recommendations to improve the PASI, including its expansion.

“It doesn’t make sense to stop at seventh, eighth, and ninth grade when, in reality, the older students nearing graduation still need reinforcement in certain subjects,” says Oscar, recounting his 2015 recommendations. “And if that goes well politically, we could start looking at how to bring it down to the school level.”

It would not go well politically.

The program did expand to tenth and eleventh grade, but the 2018 presidential election in Costa Rica became a social confrontation between an evangelical bloc led by candidate Fabricio Alvarado and the more progressive voices supporting the eventual winner, Carlos Alvarado. In February of that year, when the school year began, parents blocked 15 schools in protest against the PASI program, which had been adjusted and expanded by the Solís administration.

That 2% of parents who had chosen not to send their children during Leonardo Garnier’s era began to grow. According to a report by Radios UCR, MEP statistics showed that coverage in tenth and eleventh grades fell year after year, from 89.1% in 2021 to 62% in 2024.

At a press conference on Jan. 29, 2025, held at Casa Presidencial and broadcast on YouTube, Education Minister Anne Katherine Müller approached one of two podiums. The other was occupied by President Chaves so he could introduce her; he said she was “getting mixed up with very dark forces,” and welcomed the representatives of the Evangelical Alliance who were positioned behind Müller. The Minister announced that the Superior Council on Education had eliminated the PASI program, but emphasized that “we did not eliminate sex education. What we eliminated were eroticism manuals.”

The minister indicated that by the time the program was eliminated, two-thirds of high school students had already been excluded from PASI by their parents’ decision; that report from Radios UCR states that this was false and that the actual amount, according to statistics from the MEP itself, was lower, at 57.34%. Even so, it’s a problematic number.

To address this problem and change that “erotic” approach, Müller indicated, the MEP would implement something new: Education for Peace and Coexistence. Instead of one class per week, the new program contains one unit per year on sexuality, leaving room for other topics such as coexistence, democratic life, and others. In seventh grade, they cover the topic of consent; in eighth, sexually transmitted diseases; and in ninth, responsible parenthood. (Compare the contents of the eliminated program and the new program here.)

It’s clear by now that the discontinued program wasn’t perfect. It would be valuable to hear the perspectives of those implementing the new program, including current MEP authorities, teachers, and students. Their responses would undoubtedly be complex and interesting.

But that’s where it began to become clear that what stands out in this story is the lack of open conversation.

Unanswered requests and interviews without names

Oscar Valverde, who by 2025 was at the helm of the Paniamor Foundation, was one of the people who reacted immediately. He is one of several people interviewed for this story who reiterate that the Ministry’s lack of communication has been one of the most notable issues.

“We mobilized as civil society… professional associations, civil society, and academia. We mobilized to ask the Ombudsman to do something,” Oscar recalls. He adds that he wants to see the evaluation of the PASI that authorities said had led to its discontinuation, but none has ever been provided despite multiple requests. “We knew that [the government representatives], although they said they had evaluated the program, never showed the evaluation reports, never showed what the evaluation revealed.”

Adriana Gómez, executive director of the organization TeenSmart—which through its virtual platform JovenSalud provides various educational experiences for Spanish-speaking youth, including courses and materials on reproductive health—also said she wants to know what the MEP’s evaluation of PASI showed.

“The [PASI] had its detractors and its areas for improvement—like any program, I think, that can be improved,” she says. “We ourselves, who produce educational materials, are always in that constant review and analysis… But it seems to me that the general public didn’t understand what their technical study was about. What justified removing that content and integrating it into a new program? It should be based on evidence.

“It left us with a bitter taste as an NGO, but I’m also speaking to you as a Costa Rican, I think,” she says. “We’d be interested in knowing more. What’s the technical basis for eliminating the programs and introducing a new program with a very different name?”

President Laura Fernández took office on May 8th, 2026. On June 22nd, I requested information and interviews from the Education Ministry regarding the transition to the new Program, its content and implementation, and the feedback that has received during that process—in addition to an interview with the Academic Vice Minister or any other spokesperson she might designate. Only July 28th, after weeks of followup, the Ministry’s press department indicated that no interview would be possible and that “the program is achieving its established objectives.” Although the new program is being implemented in all the country’s schools, the Ministry email said that in 2026, visits have been made “to the schools of the Regional Education Directorates of Grande de Térraba, Coto, Nicoya, Santa Cruz, Liberia and Cañas,” to answer questions from MEP staff and “identify progress and challenges in the execution of the program.”

The MEP did not respond to my request for an official copy of the programs themselves; the versions I have, and the guidelines related to their implementation, were provided to me by Ministry staff who said they preferred not to be identified.

The Ministry of Public Health did not send any information despite several inquiries.

This, as I mentioned at the beginning of this series, is unheard of in my experience. But even more unusual was the reaction of MEP staff who asked that their names and identifying information not be included because they feel their jobs are at risk.

Voices from within

“Living in fear: that makes me really angry,” one of these people tells me about her decision to talk to me without me using her name or identifying characteristics. “But given what I’ve seen… and how people have been hurt… without any responsibility for this, it’s better to be safe than sorry.”

“The sudden inability to speak openly about these issues, or people being scandalized because a girl says she likes another girl, or people being scandalized because a boy has certain behaviors, is very difficult.

“I feel we are living in a period of darkness and regression,” she adds. “That pains me deeply because I’ve been in this business for 25 years.”

This person works as a guidance counselor for the Ministry. She also trains teachers at the university level. To my surprise, she says that although the silence and fear she perceives have made her work more difficult, her day-to-day tasks haven’t changed that much—mainly because her students keep coming with their questions and problems, and she keeps right on responding, because it’s her job. (To paraphrase what many teachers have told me over years of reporting on education in Costa Rica: if the school principal continues to support the work, that work can continue. Guidance counselors seem to have particular leeway to operate, since part of their role requires them to create responses to whatever concerns arise from the student body.)

“I’m committed to this issue, and I couldn’t care lest—pardon my language—me vale un pepino if Mr. X says, ‘We’re not working on this issue anymore,’ or ‘It’s not a priority for this office,’” she says. “It’s a shame, but for me it will always be a priority. So, whenever I can, I talk to my students.”

Another person from the MEP who spoke with me and asked not to be named, someone who has witnessed the program changes at the central office level, said something similar to the other sources: that the person has constantly requested information, through official channels, on the methodological basis of the new programs in order to work around that guideline, and has never received a response.

“The responsibility for the atrocity they committed will fall on their shoulders,” the person tells me about those responsible for the cancellation of the previous program. “I often wonder, how does the State benefit from having a country that’s so passive about sexuality?”

But the official also indicates that although programs or policies change, the needs of students continue to dictate educators’ response—and the more than 4,000 teachers, counselors, and psychologists who were trained in the last phases of PASI, 2017-2019, until the pandemic, continue to work in classrooms.

The counselor I quoted earlier echoes that sentiment. She says that no curriculum change can supersede all the teacher training that has been done over the years, not to mention the university-level education of teachers who understand the importance of sex ed. She points out that two universities in Costa Rica, two public and two private, include at least one sexuality course in their teacher training curriculum—and thanks to this, teachers are entering the workforce every year with training in this area.

“I’m optimistic about this; that’s just my nature,” she says. “Because we’ve spent a lot of time training many people in this… The students who take my course each semester take something away in their hearts that will connect them to [this]. The guidelines they can apply to a situation… the protocol they have to follow when there’s a history of abuse of a girl.

“I think my daughters and yours will get some sex education,” she tells me. “Even though the system is so closed off on these issues.”

What should happen now?

At the beginning of this process, I imagined that those who opposed the elimination of the PASI would be advocating for its reinstatement, just as it existed before. But like everything else in this story, the reality much more complex.

To give just one example: Was it right for science teachers to be in charge of the subject? Was it better to teach it in a single class, instead of as a cross-curricular theme? For Edward Ramírez, a school counselor with 27 years of experience working for the MEP—and who was part of a team of about 20 “multipliers” trained on the subject who, successively, trained the country’s teachers on how to introduce the topic into their subjects between 2001 and 2012—that cross-cutting work was much better than what was done later with the PASI.

“When we talked about comprehensive sexuality education, we were talking about it not only from a biological point of view, but also from a social, emotional, and even spiritual point of view,” Edward explains to me. “How do I incorporate the topic of sexuality into math? Well, let’s talk about statistics—for example, sexually transmitted infections—how the percentages have been increasing or decreasing, the number of teenage pregnancies… In Civics, in Social Studies, and whatever else, there were many ways to introduce the topic of comprehensive sexuality education.”

He says that in his opinion, it is much more effective to incorporate this important topic into various subjects, and thus avoid a single teacher—the science teacher—who may be uncomfortable with the topic, or teach it with bias, a problem that was detected by the INAMU evaluation and mentioned by students who responded to our survey.

Part of the problem, and perhaps one of the biggest lessons of this whole process, has nothing to do with sexuality itself. It’s the lack of clarity regarding the impact of curricula when they aren’t regularly evaluated through exams, surveys, or rigorous studies.

What knowledge did the participants of PASI gain? How will the results of the new Peace Education Program be evaluated now? How will we, as a country, be able to understand the impact of these changes if we don’t have more information?

How can we take a more proactive approach instead of waiting to see if pregnancy or sexually transmitted disease rates rise again?

“One of the things I regret is that we didn’t do enough evaluation work, and that there hasn’t been any since,” says Leonardo Garnier. “These are long-term evaluations, and governments are very short-lived.”

We ended up talking not about rights or pregnancies, but about how an evaluation system that outlives governments could work. Leonardo thinks aloud: it could be housed within the Ministry of Planning. Or the MEP’s Quality Management and Evaluation Department could measure the impact of the country’s curricula in a more in-depth way.

Or, “in many discussions we have had with people from the State of Education and with universities, there is the idea that the MEP should not evaluate itself,” he says. “That evaluation department should become… an education evaluation institute that belongs to the Higher Education Council and not to the MEP, and that therefore has that permanence over time.”

Meanwhile, students will continue to ask for information about sexuality.

“I started my life with no experience,” says one person who responded to our survey, and who attended a public school in San Sebastián, San José, from 2019 to 2024. “All I had was what I had seen in pornography. That’s something that goes beyond the institution, since at home I was never told anything about my sexuality.”

“I didn’t receive any sex ed classes of any kind at school,” says another, who attended a public school in San Rafael de Oreamuno, Cartago, between 2021 and 2025. “What I know now is thanks to resources like Google that allow me to access articles and accurate information.”

Between 2020 and 2024, the number of pregnancies among girls and adolescents in Costa Rica continued to decline. From those 222 girls aged 14 and under, and 5,920 teenagers who were pregnant in 2020, the country dropped to 146 and 3,909 in 2024.

Will it continue to fall?

What metrics are missing from this conversation?

What are we not even measuring?

What do the curricula that address social education topics in Costa Rica contain? What is included in the Program for Education on Integral Affectivity and Sexuality (PASI), implemented from 2012 to 2025, and the new Peace and Coexistence Education Program, which students are currently receiving?

Comparing two programs with different structures and languages ​​is complex. After studying both programs, we decided to focus this summary on two components that are roughly equivalent.

It is important to mention that the content below is not an in-depth comparative analysis of these programs, but rather our best effort as journalists to give you an idea of ​​some of the main differences between these programs.

The PASI data are taken from the document “Program of Studies of Education for Affectivity and Comprehensive Sexuality, III Cycle, 2017”, provided to El Colectivo 506 by Oscar Valverde, executive director of the Paniamor Foundation.

The data for the Education for Peace and Coexistence Program is taken from a document provided by an educator from the Ministry of Public Education: “Volume I, Macro-curriculum Study Program, Education for Peace and

Coexistence, Academic Vice-Ministry, Curriculum Development Directorate. Final version approved by the Higher Education Council. Session 5-2025, agreement AC-CSE-42-05-2025 of 01/27/2025”.

The main elements of each program

The first of these two components of approximate equivalence are the main axes of each program, called “thematic axes” in the PASI and “cross-cutting axes” in the new Program.

If programs were books, they would be like the table of contents—the large chapters that teachers will cover during the year.

As the program names indicate, all three axes and eight sub-axes of the 2012-2015 program focused on affectivity and comprehensive sexuality; of the six axes of the new program, published in 2025, only the last of the five focuses directly on sexuality.

Thematic axes and sub-axes of the 2012-20215 program (PASI)

Cross-cutting themes of the 2025+ program (Education for Peace and Coexistence)

1. A full experience of sexuality, in harmony with well-being and personal and social development. 2. Shared responsibility in the enjoyment of sexuality, from the exercise and full guarantee of rights. 3. The exercise of sexuality for equality and social equity. Sub-axes of Axis 3: * Bodies and corporealities * Affections and bonds * Pleasure and well-being * Sexual and reproductive health * Identities and diversities * Social co-responsibility * Sexual and reproductive rights * Culture, power and violence

1. We are different: differences are respected; peace is built from differences 2. Non-violence and coexistence for peace 3. Global citizenship and human rights 4. Strengthening socio-emotional development 5. Ethics, values ​​and principles 6. Growing up fully: Sexuality, education. and well-being.

And what do they learn? Skills that students should acquire

A second roughly equivalent element between the two programs, in our view, is the “assessment criteria” in the 2012-2025 program (PASI) and the “achievement indicators” in the new program. Although there are many differences in the structures of the two programs, these categories provide a general idea of ​​the skills that students are expected to acquire.

To create the table below, we reviewed both programs and selected the skills that we consider relevant to the topic of comprehensive sexuality and affectivity. Fewer skills (or “achievement indicators”) are listed in our table from the new program because, as we saw in the previous section, sexuality is only one of six axes—whereas in the PASI, all axes and sub-axes were related to sexuality and affectivity.

We also removed items that were very repetitive (for example, in the PASI in eighth grade, there are different assessment criteria for recognizing the importance of relationships, establishing strategies to maintain them, and valuing them; we kept only the first one). We added black font to improve readability. What we haven’t done is modify the original language of the programs.

Topics related to affectivity and comprehensive sexuality for Seventh grade

Evaluation criteria – Program 2012-20215 (PASI)

Achievement indicator – Program 2025+ (Education for Peace and Coexistence)

– Understand the processes and changes, biological, psychological, emotional and social, that occur in adolescence. – Describe the diversity of gender identities, gender expressions, and sexual orientations that are part of human sexuality. – Explain the importance of sexual diversity and its expressions as part of people’s affective and sexual experience. – Recognize the link between culture, the exercise of power, and violence in social and emotional relationships.

– Recognizes emotions through various communication exchange techniques. – Justify the importance of consent through communication exchange techniques.

Topics related to affectivity and comprehensive sexuality for Eighth grade

Evaluation criteria – Program 2012-20215 (PASI)

Achievement indicator – Program 2025+ (Education for Peace and Coexistence)

– Recognize the importance of relationships—friendship, couple, intergenerational and community—through activities for personal and social development. – Recognize sexual and reproductive rights and their scope. – Describe existing gaps in the guarantee of sexual and reproductive rights, internationally and nationally. – Appreciate the importance of respect and defense of the sexual and reproductive rights of all people. – Recognize the characteristics and consequences of the abusive and violent relationships between peers and in pairs. – Describe warning and risk signs that help detect abusive and violent relationships. – Understand the importance of the eradication and prevention of violent and abusive relationships.

– Identify other people’s emotions through communication exchange for a positive coexistence. – Understand the factors that influence the choice of partner and healthy relationships through case analysis. – Distinguish healthy relationships from violent ones through recreational activities. – Explain the influence of values, interests, and skills on responsible decisions in emotional relationships. – Define strategies that promote inclusion, respect and equity to build a more inclusive society.

Topics related to affectivity and comprehensive sexuality for Ninth grade

Evaluation criteria – Program 2012-20215 (PASI)

Achievement indicator – Program 2025+ (Education for Peace and Coexistence)

– Understand the physical, hormonal, and psychological processes involved in the human sexual response and their corresponding variations according to sex, gender, age and other individual conditions. – Identify various pleasurable experiences that are part of human existence and that contribute to well-being and personal development. – Appreciate the importance of sexual pleasure, in conjunction with other pleasurable experiences that are part of human existence and personal well-being. – Recognize the primary Sexually Transmitted Infections, transmission routes and prevention. – Describe the factors involved in making appropriate decisions to prevent sexually transmitted infections and unplanned pregnancies. – Appreciate the importance of making decisions for the experience of sexuality in accordance with sexual rights, reproductive rights and life goals. -Describe the forms of sexual abuse and violence, which affect personal and community well-being. – Understanding the importance of detection, prevention, care and reporting of all forms of sexual abuse and violence.

– Identify the impact of your decisions on yourself, on your romantic relationships and with others… – Differentiate between informed decision-making and proper sexual and reproductive health through communication exchange techniques.