Peer pressure stronger than parent control

 PEER pressure among students is far more influential than parental influence, the National Education Conference in Goroka heard yesterday.

Peer education programme co-ordinator at the University of Papua New Guinea Garua Peni said peer pressure impacted on the behaviour of students.

Peni said peer groups listened more attentively to each other than listening to older people, including their parents.

She said taking all these into serious consideration, the UPNG had embarked on a peer education programme to empower young people to make healthy sexual and reproductive choices through educational awareness, training, support, counselling and advocacy programmes.

She said they were working with young people who could easily reach out to their peers to disseminate factual information on making informed choices on sexuality and  acceptance of factual information without fear and discrimination.

Peni said higher learning institutions were faced with sexually transmitted diseases, unplanned pregnancies and sexual violence.

She invited other institutions to negotiate with UPNG to implement the peer education programme as they were about to expand.

The United Nations Population Fund supports the programme.