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Students find sex education inadequate
(China Daily)
Updated: 2004-04-22 08:38
Once taboo, sex education courses have been added to the curriculum of 200 of
Beijing's 567 high schools since 1989, according to Song Yuzhen, director of the
Moral Education Department of Beijing Education Commission.
A teacher (centre)
from Beijing's Yuanmingyuan School talks to her students about sex
education, now that the subject is part of the school curriculum. [China
Daily] | But not all students find the course attractive.
At the High School Affiliated with Beijing's Institute of Technology, one of
the pilot schools for Beijing's first launch of sex textbooks in 2002, the
course starts in the seventh grade with one 40-minute class per week.
Senior high school students attend four classes on sex education every
semester.
Entitled Guidelines on Sexual Health, the textbooks, respectively for junior
and senior high school students, examine how to confront sexual harassment and
discuss safe sex and contraceptive measures, among other sex-related topics.
Despite the fact the late Premier Zhou Enlai ordered sex knowledge to be
disseminated to pre-pubescent teens back in 1963, it wasn't until 30 years later
that sex education was officially embraced by the school curriculum.
The Ministry of Health and the State Education Commission, now Ministry of
Education, made it clear in 1993 that "adolescence education" should be
conducted in primary and high schools and defined it as "tri-fold education" on
sexual physiology, sexual psychology and sexual morality.
But it took another 10 years before textbooks for sex education courses
became available in Beijing, Heilongjiang, Chongqing, Shanghai, Guangdong and
other parts of the country.
Content too rudimentary
However, there is still much resistance against such education among parents
even in some developed areas.
A random survey conducted by a local newspaper in Nanjing last December
revealed that only 10 of 96 parents approved of sex education in school.
Even more overwhelming dissatisfaction was uncovered by two Beijing youths -
Chen Xi and Lin Weifeng - who challenged current sex education policy by
conducting a survey of 3,000 high school students in 2002.
In a research paper that won first prize in the Beijing youth science
innovation contest last year, Chen and Lin concluded that none of the 3,000
students in Beijing and other parts of the country who responded to their survey
was satisfied with sex education at school.
Also, "Nearly 70 per cent of them are not against premarital sexual
experience, contrary to what is taught in class," the paper stated.
The 17-year-old Lin, from Beijing's Huiwen High School, finds sex education
classes boring, saying the teacher "just briefs us with terminology of sexual
parts of the human body and then warns us not to engage in any love affair at
such a young age."
Chen Xi, now a 12th grader at the High School Affiliated to the Renmin
University of China, says he and Lin conducted the survey "in order to show
educators what we students really need from sex education."
Song Yuzhen of the Beijing Education Commission sees the point in their
criticism. Because academic scores rather than sex education lessons determine
the students' chances to enter un iversity, Song observes, sex education classes
often interfere with studies of required courses like math and physics.
A high school teacher in Beijing who requested anonymity admits most of her
colleagues don't know or don't care about what students want on this topic. Many
still feel the subject "too sensitive to handle," she says.
Zhang Yinmo, an editor with eight years experience in youth magazines, notes
"the course design is far behind the demand of students," and sex education is
so much about promoting chastity rather than ensuring safety, while caring too
much about curbing the spread of STD (sexually transmitted diseases) but
neglecting the natural curiosity that accompanies students' sexual maturity.
Studies indicate that in China today, boys on average have their first
ejaculation at age 13.15, while girls begin menstruating at 12.32 - both younger
than their parents' generation.
"How can they be happy with their life in the future if they are empty-minded
about sex?" asks Sun Bin, a teacher at Beijing's Luxun High School.
Doctor Deng Jun of Beijing No 2 Hospital has witnessed the failure of sex
education at school, as 50 of the 90 young women who have been to the hospitals'
adolescence clinic this year got pregnant. "Few of them have any idea that they
should have used condoms when having sexual activities," says Deng.
Zhang Yinmo has co-authored a book entitled Roses Concealed in a School Bag,
recording tales of 13 sexually active high school students born between 1980 and
1984. All of them have been doing well in their academic studies but feel sex
education at school is too boring to give it an ear. So they all missed what
their teachers said about safe sex and none of them took any protective measures
when they had sex. The book is now popular among many teenagers and their
parents.
Despite their criticism of sex education at school, most respondents to Chen
and Lin's survey said school was the most desirable channel to gain sexual
knowledge, although information can also be acquired via the Internet, friends
and magazines. Some other surveys indicate that only 7 per cent of parents are
able to give proper sex education to their children.
Psychology to be stressed
Cao Yuwen, director of the Moral Education Department of the High School
Affiliated with Beijing's Institute of Technology, sees room for improvement in
sex education.
"The course has been focusing on how the body's sexual system functions and
on sexual development and reproduction, but sexual morality and psychology have
been ignored," says Cao.
She feels the latter is more important, because students "need to have
information about the physical and emotional changes associated with puberty and
sexual reproduction, including fertilization and conception and about sexually
transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS."
The real problem here is not sex education itself but whether the education
is adequate, says Ji Chengye, director of the Centre for the Youth Sexual Health
Research. "When they have the knowledge of sex, teenagers build up
self-confidence because they know what kind of sexual behaviours are dangerous
and what kind of things they should never do."
Besides training students, some schools also invite experts to lecture
parents at least once a semester. "Sometimes it is difficult for adults to know
when to raise the issue to their kids, but the important thing is to maintain an
open relationship with them," Cao says.
Given that teenagers are sexually active but not yet psychologically and
physiologically mature, they often defy traditional disciplines both at home and
school, which may lead to puppy love and even elopement. Therefore, "sex
education, besides imparting knowledge about the human body, must shoulder the
responsibility of cultivating a healthy personality," says Bu Wei, researcher on
communication with children at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
Moreover, she points out that sex education is not about setting prohibitions
on teenagers. Only the students themselves can say yes or no to their bodies.
What adults, including parents and educators, can do is to provide students with
the right to knowledge and choice.
"First, they should be adequately informed of potential dangers related to
having sex at a young age, and of different potential results," says Bu.
"Ultimately, it is up to students to pick a road for themselves."
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