Twenty-six girls under the age of 15 have become mothers in the past two years. UNICEF found that around 12,000 children were exposed to sexual exploitation and abuse within a single year. Eleven new HIV cases were registered in July alone. All of this in North Macedonia.
Not only did these figures fail to alarm the state institutions; just a few weeks later, those institutions decided to withdraw from schools one of the few institutional tools that could help prevent such harm.
“There is no comprehensive sexuality education, and there will be none,” said Minister of Education and Science Vesna Janevska.
The subject was withdrawn only a few days after Bishop Jakov called for it in an open letter to Minister Janevska. In a secular state, the minister listened to a cleric with no educational expertise and ignored 11 professional associations that had called, as early as 2022, for the subject to be expanded.
““Minister Janevska, withdraw this programme of ideological indoctrination of our youth, our future for the survival of both the Church and the state,” Bishop Jakov said in the open letter.
The minister also acted against the interests of more than 300 students who had voluntarily chosen to take the subject of comprehensive sexuality education (CSE). Mollëkuqja has learned from conversations on the ground that student interest in the subject had only been growing.
She nevertheless appeared somewhat “contrite” only days after deciding to withdraw the subject without consulting experts. On 17 September, Janevska said that she had read the programme herself and saw nothing controversial in it.
“Morality and ethics do not conflict with the knowledge that children should have for proper development. That is why I asked the Bureau for the Development of Education to withdraw the programme, the one that is contested. I read it myself and I see nothing controversial in it, but I asked the Bureau to carry out a professional review together with experts from Macedonia, to look at the programme once more and give their opinion, so that we can bring the programme back,” Janevska said during a guest appearance on the MRT 1 evening news.
Experts tell Mollëkuqja: from bad to worse
Blerina Qamili is a doctor. She stressed that state institutions in North Macedonia are still reluctant to speak openly about comprehensive sexuality education.
Qamili added that the country does not give sexuality education the importance it requires.
“In the education system, there is no structured and sustainable sexuality education programme. Topics related to sexual health are mentioned only superficially or in theoretical terms, without practical information and without space for questions. This leaves young people to inform themselves from unreliable sources or from their peers, which increases misinformation and health risks,” said the physician Blerina Qamili.
Sheruze Osmani Ballazhi is a psychologist and lecturer at the University of Tetovo. She told a Mollëkuqja journalist that the decision to discontinue comprehensive sexuality education could affect the psychological development of young people.
Osmani Ballazhi added that the absence of the knowledge this subject provides – such as the changes that occur during puberty, the media’s influence in shaping false ideals of physical appearance, the consequences of early sexual activity and more – leaves children unprotected.
“The lack of this knowledge leads to confusion, anxiety, shame and low self-esteem. Moreover, the lack of sexuality education leads to difficulties in building healthy interpersonal relationships, because young people do not develop the skills to communicate their feelings, set personal boundaries and recognise abusive relationships,” said psychologist Sheruze Osmani Ballazhi.
According to psychologist Sheruze Osmani Ballazhi, data from the 2022 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study show that 30% of 15-year-olds in North Macedonia are sexually active, which is higher than in Denmark (22%) and Germany (19%).
Civil society organisations: Janevska removed the only systemic tool for prevention
HERA The Health Education and Research Association (HERA) was among the most vocal organisations opposing the decision to remove comprehensive sexuality education from school curricula. Only a few hours after Minister Janevska’s decision, it released alarming statistics.
“If there is something we should fear, it is not CSE, but the increasingly frequent cases of harassment, sexual violence, maltreatment and rape among young people, committed by minors, both in schools and in public spaces. We should be alarmed that as many as 10% of children aged 12 to 17 in North Macedonia, or nearly 12,000 children, were exposed to technology-facilitated sexual exploitation and abuse within the space of just one year,” HERA said.
According to HERA, the state should not view comprehensive sexuality education as a threat to children but, on the contrary, as a subject that would teach them when and where to set boundaries.
“This is the reality young people live in, and withdrawing CSE means withdrawing one of the few systemic tools that can help them recognise risk, set boundaries, say ‘no’, ask for help and protect themselves. CSE is not a threat to children but a systemic response to the threats they already face: sexual and peer violence, blackmail, the sharing of intimate photos without consent, toxic relationships, unplanned pregnancies, HIV prevention and disinformation online,” – HERA.
As a reminder, the data show that 8% of children were exposed to sexual images, 5% received unwanted requests for intimate photos or videos, 4% were blackmailed with the threat that their content would be distributed, and 3% had such content shared without their permission.
In addition, in 78% of cases the perpetrator is someone the child knows, while 52% of cases of sexual exploitation occur through social media such as Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and WhatsApp. In such a reality, it is shocking that only 19% of the children surveyed said they had received any kind of sexuality education.
Data on sexual and reproductive health show that in 2024 alone, 588 children were born to mothers aged 15 to 19, while in just one month 11 new HIV cases were also registered.
Biology teachers skip lessons about the body
With comprehensive sexuality education withdrawn as a separate elective subject, the only subject in which students can learn the basics about their own bodies is biology. But problems arise here too.
We also recall a Mollëkuqja article published in 2022, in which students and former students themselves reported that biology teachers had skipped lessons on human reproduction, often “due to time constraints”, or had taught them only partially.
At the time, psychologist Vala Adili described this as a problem of the teachers themselves and not of the students: according to her, they “escape their own awkwardness by not covering the topic”. Biology teacher Njomza Shaqiri acknowledged that the phenomenon exists among older generations of teachers, as a result of taboo topics.
As a reminder, the pilot programme for this in North Macedonia was given the green light in 2019 and was implemented as a pilot during 2021 in just three schools in the country, in Skopje and Tetovo. In one of the schools it was cancelled because of pressure from parents.
Elsewhere, sexuality education is offered in the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Switzerland, Norway, Austria, Estonia, Portugal, Belgium, Ireland, Germany and the United Kingdom. In Albania, CSE was introduced in 2012 in primary and secondary schools. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the CSE programme was implemented as an elective in several cantons for a number of years.
This publication was produced within the framework of the project Queer and Present: Media, Rights and Safety for LGBTIQ+ persons in Pollog, which is implemented as part of the broader regional project Together for LGBTQI+ Equality, implemented by the Centre for Civic Education (CCE) in partnership with ERA – LGBTI Equal Rights Association for the Western Balkans and Turkey, Queer Montenegro, Queer Center Skopje, Tuzla Open Center, Open Mind Spectrum Albania (OMSA), and the Center for Social Group Development from Kosovo. The programme is funded by the European Union.
The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of the Center for Equal Opportunities “Mollekuqja” and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union, CCE, or the project partners.
