Sex education in schools

This week's entry would be about MOE tightening the topics covered during sex education in schools. I believe that many of us has came across sexuality talks while in secondary schools. I remember sitting in the hall of my school, listening to a external instructor talk about abstaining from sex and the consequences of engaging in pre-marital sex. The article I am referring to can be found here.

The reason why MOE is doing this is because of the rise in teenagers contracting sexually transmitted diseases and a survey conducted by the Health Promotion Board showed that teens aged 14 to 19 are sexually active. Since 2000, the key message of the sexuality talks held in schools is to promote abstinence. However, the rise of teenagers contracting STIs and teenage pregnancies shows that promoting abstinence is not enough to counter the problem. MOE has thus decided that information on contraception should be included in sexuality talks. This has raised objections from certain individuals as they feel that promoting contraception is indirectly giving teenagers the idea that it is okay to experiment sexually, as long as they do not get themselves pregnant. Contents of the sexuality talk also includes homosexuality, and the message sent across to students on this would be that homosexual acts are against the law, even though the government has stated that homosexuals have their private space. 

The method that MOE is using is verbal communication. MOE hopes to achieve their aims, which is decreasing the number of teenagers contracting STIs and teenage pregnancies, through the sexuality talks held in school. However, this programme has started since 2000, and it has been proved that sexuality education alone is not enough to counter the problems faced by the society today. Non-verbal communication is also used in sexuality talks. I vividly remember watching this video of the abortion process while attending one of the sexuality talks held by my school. There was no communication, all I could see were extremely disturbing images of the abortion process. This shows me that verbal and non-verbal communication are equally important when one wants to transfer messages across to another. The impact of non-verbal communication may not necessarily be lesser compared to verbal communication. I also feel that the steps used by MOE to decrease the number of teenage pregnancies are very feasible. By introducing contraception, it would help to bring the number of teenage pregnancies down even though teenagers might feel that the act of pre-marital sex is condoned by everyone. However, I feel that talks on homosexuality is a very sensitive topic and although it should not be completely left out from the sexuality talks, the content of homosexuality should be given serious consideration. Homosexuality is not uncommon amongst teenagers these days and if miscommunication occurs between teenagers and MOE, there might be undesirable consequences. 

I also feel that sexuality education is a very important part of growing up. Some teenagers might want to experiment with things that they are not familiar with thus by having the right information within their reach, they would be able to differ right from wrong.