Comprehensive Sexuality Education

“Should there be separate sessions for boys and girls on menstruation?”

“When should we talk about attraction and relationships to our students?”

“Students these days know more than us about sexuality, they don’t need us to explain anything…”

“Some student asked me for my pronouns today. What do they mean?!”

“I’m worried about all the information students get from social media… how do I discuss this in class?”

Are you a teacher or educator who has had similar questions? Do you find it difficult or feel unprepared to address students’ doubts about gender, sex and sexuality?

Do you wish to learn how to talk about sexuality and gender with your students? Are you looking for someone to help you build a safe and inclusive sexuality education workshop in your school, institution or organisation?

TARSHI has over 20 years of experience conducting training on Comprehensive Sexuality Education for schools and educators and has published credible resources and eLearning courses to help teachers and educators understand what CSE is and equip them with skills to engage comfortably on sexuality-related issues.

Studies such as UNESCO’s International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education (2018) show how Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) enables children and adolescents to acquire accurate, age-appropriate knowledge and empowers them to make responsible decisions. Yet, CSE attracts much discussion for and against it! (Please click here to read some frequently asked questions related to CSE). The focus of TARSHI’s training for educators is to help educators assimilate accurate knowledge on sexuality and gender at a personal level and also develop the skills to talk about the same with children/young people and parents they interact with. The training also helps educators understand the importance of CSE and explore and address their doubts or discomfort around the issue.

WHAT DOES THE TRAINING OFFER?

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Reflective and Experiential Learning

Learning to talk about sexuality with young people requires us to reflect on the conditioning and ideas that we grew up with and may need to unlearn. TARSHI’s CSE training prioritises reflective and experiential learning rather than prescriptive “to-do” approaches. We do this through interactive exercises, quizzes, debates, case studies and group activities - all with a dose of fun and in non-judgmental learning spaces that participants and trainers co-create.

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Centering the rights of children and young people

“But aren’t they too young to know this information”? For many educators, conversations on sexuality feel scary or “inappropriate” in a school setting. By guiding participants through age- and stage-differentiated CSE topics, TARSHI’s training seeks to address these fears and help educators understand how to introduce and continue CSE conversations with students of different age groups. We also train educators working with students with disabilities to look at sexuality through a rights-based, pleasure-affirming lens for people with disabilities, help educators arrive at CSE topics of relevance to the students they work with, and ways to approach CSE with them,

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Customised topics

TARSHI believes in co-creating a Safe and Inclusive space for learning and unlearning. In addition to the fundamentals of right-based and pleasure-affirming approaches to sexuality education, TARSHI will work with schools to understand their specific requirements and provide adequate support in addressing challenges that you may face in discussing sexuality-related topics with young people.

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Resources

Here’s your chance to also revisit your learnings in the future as we share resources like handouts, training manuals, and readings as part of our training. We also offer TARSHI’s popular publications ``The Orange Book” and “The Yellow Book”, at reduced rates for participants to learn more about how they can deliver CSE within school settings.

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Guidance on CSE curriculum

For a core group of educators who may lead the implementation of CSE in the school, TARSHI can support with guidance and further training on designing and implementing a CSE curriculum.

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Supporting Safe, Inclusive, Self-Affirming spaces in schools

Schools are sites that mould the perspectives of children and young people. When they are safe, inclusive and self-affirming - SISA - in the context of gender and sexuality, schools can help students grow up with healthy attitudes and behaviours about their self and society, Schools also need to be SISA for their staff, including prioritising their wellbeing as they handle ever-increasing responsibilities in a rapidly-changing world. Our training supports staff in identifying policies and practices to make their schools SISA for students and staff.

WHO IS THIS TRAINING FOR?

Teaching and Non-Teaching Staff of schools, including schools that have students with disabilities
Sexuality Educators
Parents
Staff of any organisations (medical/ non-governmental/ corporate or more) working with young people

DURATION

Typically two days long for a comprehensive introduction to the topic and for participants to explore tips and tools to talk about CSE with young people.

Language

English or Hindi

LOCATION

Delhi/NCR and other parts of India and South Asia

PREVIOUS TRAININGS CONDUCTED WITH:

Some of the schools and organisations for which we have conducted CSE trainings include Ahvaan Trust, Bharat National Public School, Hopetown Girls’ School, Pardada Pardadi Educational Society, Presidium, Step by Step, The Srijan School, Udaya School, Welham Girl’s School and more.

A group of teachers sitting in a circle and having a discussion

“I had not quite looked at Gender and Sexual identities as a separate entity, so it was great to have that clarity and I feel much more confident about this topic.”

Testimonial from Hopetown Girls’ School, Dehradun

Group photo with teachers from The Srijan School and TARSHI facilitators

“The training was extensive. There were a lot of topics that were covered which otherwise I might not have talked about because of lack of knowledge. You guys are doing phenomenal work. Keep up the good work :)”

Testimonial from The Srijan School, New Delhi

Teachers from Udaya School sitting in a circle with a chart paper for an activity

“It {the training} was good. We learned a lot of things from this training. We gained the confidence to talk to children about this when they need it. We can teach them about safe and unsafe touch. Instead of explaining only the negative side of something, we learned that we should always talk about its positive side first.”