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Sex education should start young
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Han Ximin
SEX had long been a taboo topic in this country, especially for adolescents. A typical and traditional answer given by some Chinese parents to the where-did-I-come-from question is "we found you on the road, or near the riverside."
Yet bombarded by romantic love stories from media like TV and magazines, our youngster no longer regard sex as a taboo, especially in the new century.
On Wednesday afternoon last week, just around the after school time, the reporter came to the Fumin Road in Futian District and felt a little embarrassed when seeing couples of what we called "students lovers", around 14-15-year-old in school uniforms, walking hand-in-hand and embracing each other occasionally as if there was no one else present.
A boy stopped, bending down, kissed the girl. He seemed to care for nothing and walked on with the girl in his arms, though his eye-catching behaviour surprised the passers-by. The girl blushed and buried her head.
Confronted with the question if dating would distract her from her study, the girl said they weren't in love, they were only ordinary friends. Obviously, her answer is not true.
A woman, who had sold newspapers at a stall near a bus stop for a year, said she had noticed these "student lovers" long ago. She almost sees these student lovers every day for they meet and depart at the bus stops.
Survey
Wu Qingping of Shenzhen Family Planning Association had been very busy recently for her new assignment. She was chosen to contact with schools, families and students for a survey of productive health education, a programme which was under the collaboration between the China Family Planning Association and the Programme for Appropriate Technology in Health, a US-based non-governmental organization designated to raise concern of reproductive health among Chinese adolescents.
In her words, the result of a survey at a vocational school last month was astonishing. The students think that 70-80 per cent peers had been in love for at least once, and 20 per cent even tried sex, a practice that may lead to unexpected pregnancy, though many admitted they know little about sex.
Abortion is the choice for 80-90 per cent of the students who find themselves to be pregnant, while 10 per cent may choose to give birth, a difficult choice which usually depends on two things: first, the would-be mother really loves her partner, second, her family has enough money to support her decision..
This coincided with a survey funded by United Nations Population Fund last year in five schools in Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality and Northwest China's Shaanxi Province. \
The survey said 30.4 per cent of high school students are in favour of pre-marital sex, 47.8 per cent think it is understandable and only 18.4 per cent are against it. The survey, directed at helping teenagers better cope with problems associated with puberty, said young people are entering puberty earlier than previous generations. But that does not mean they are ready for the emotional and physical changes of puberty.
Experts' opinions
The sex education offered by schools is at present insufficient given the level of sexual activity amongst young people and their ignorance of the facts of life, said Ling Zhiwei, Principal of Binhe Middle School, also a member of the SZ Municipal Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.
At eleven and twelve many young people are approaching the threshold of puberty. As hormones kick in, children are ready to express themselves sexually. This is when students must acquire the knowledge and technical skills to manage their emerging sexuality.
Many experts believe that children are sexually mis-educated. One kind of distortion comes from parents. Instead of affirming the child's sexuality, some parents would convey the message that sex is harmful, shameful, or even sinful. Or, out of a misguided intention to protect their young, they cling to the notion that a child should be kept ignorant of sex and fail to provide timely or accurate information about sex.
The second kind of distortion comes from media, according to Tao Lin of Shenzhen Kangning Hospital.
Tao said adolescent sex and reproductive health education is important to protect mental and physical health and to improve population quality and family happiness.
"If adolescents fail to obtain knowledge and services from a formal channel, they may easily be misled by pseudo-science and other forms of unhealthy information, "said Tao said.
As to the sources of sex education channel, the survey taken at Shenzhen vocational school showed that 40 per cent students learn about sex from friends and 50 per cent from books, leaflets and magazines. Only an insignificant five per cent said they got the information from school and the rest from parents.
Curriculum
Although health textbooks contain material on the reproductive system, China has no official sex education curriculum. Teachers often find it too embarrassing to deal with it.
Shenzhen schools had opened health education courses. In primary schools, kids are taught separately on the basic knowledge of body structures. In middle school, students learned emotional and body changes of puberty.
"The education is still at the stage of physiological anatomy, in which didactic teaching ignores the growing number of adolescents who are already sexually active at age twelve and thirteen," said Chen Jianxin, a teacher with Cuiyuan Middle School.
According to the survey by Wu Qingping, 80 per cent parents thought the curriculum are old fashioned, though they are failing miserably at the task. They rejected the idea that schools should provide contraception education for fear that this will lead early sex behaviour.
Starting young
Students at the survey think sex education should begin among kids at five to six in kindergartens. Over half of the students are not satisfied with school's adolescent education and nearly a half think that sex education should have the same importance as maths and English.
"Sex education includes much more than a movie about menstruation and a class or two in human reproduction," said Huang Kongchen of Education Science Research Institute of Futian District, it should begin in kindergarten and continue into high school.
Little schoolchildren do not have the capacity to understand big adult issues directly, but many are now exposed to grown-up issues at an early age, and so it is necessary to find routes to understanding, said Huang.
In the middle schools, sex education takes a more technical turn. The focus of sex education shifts from sex literacy to building sexual skills. Middle school students need to continue to practice their communication skills. But in teaching these skills teachers cannot rely on old-fashioned didactic methods. Middle school students can sometimes be reckless and don't necessarily have a vision for their own long-term benefit. Huang suggested that case study and analysis might be a more interesting way to approach the students.
Sex education project
SHENZHEN was chosen as one of the regions in China to initiate a programme which is designed to promote reproductive health among Chinese adolescents.
Twelve provinces, municipalities and cities including Zhejiang, Shandong, Beijing and Qingdao were listed in the programme, which was under the collaboration between the China Family Planning Association (CFPA) the Programme for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH), a US-based non-governmental organization.
CFPA, the largest family planning organization in China, will receive US$ four million from international organization for the programme.
The programme, started last September, is aimed at promoting maternal and children health care. People between age 10 to 24 are the primary targets of the five-year effort. The campaign will also be aimed at policy-makers, medical workers, teachers, parents and family planning workers.
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