The Department of Health plans to distribute some 310,000 sex education manuals to high school seniors and their teachers by the end of the month, to help smooth the student's transition from teenagers to adults.
The department made public yesterday its latest sex education manuals,which are aimed at providing senior high school students with more information about sex and contraception.
The department has tried to make the manuals more enticing to teens by issuing separate manuals for girls and boys and by using a design which includes a fun question about the relationship of "toilets for girls and for boys " on the first page.
The manuals cover gender roles, intimate relations with the opposite sex, contraception and marriage. Every chapter includes some case histories and a question for brainstorming that DOH officials "hope will encourage further discussion between teachers and students."
Dating and pregnancy are common concerns among young students. According to the new manuals, a survey conducted among 50,000 students in high school and college showed that their first sexual experience occurred in homes or rented apartments. The survey also found that 85 percent of unmarried mothers under the age of 20 became pregnant unexpectedly.
The manuals urge students to think twice before having sex and to understand how to use contraceptives.
Nowadays sex education is not as taboo in schools as it once was, and more open-minded thinking about sex and gender is also espoused by progressive educators.
For those who are struggling with sexual-identity questions, however, there is less opportunity for discussion. The manuals don't address the issue either, focusing only on traditional gender roles.
"We are targeting the mass population. Homosexuality is another issue," explained Cheng Chen-chao (陳承照), an official with the Taiwan Association for Sexuality Education, the organization which wrote the text of the manuals.
The release of the manuals follows the publication earlier this year of similar guidebooks for junior high school students.
The department is also planning to publish a sex education manual for newly married couples.
"We will make it public on Chinese Valentine's Day (which fall on July 7 in the lunar calendar)," said DOH director-general Chan Chi-shean (詹啟賢).
Chan said the text of the manuals will also be posted on the department's Web site.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique