Proponents of abstinence-only sex-education blasted the Ministry of Education's "Swedish paradigm" approach yesterday to reducing the problem of teen pregnancy and Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs).
Instead of teaching students about contraceptives and safe sex, educators and legislators at an event held yesterday called for Taiwan to take its lead from the US and adopt a system that encourages students to "Wait, think and talk."
The ministry's sex-education booklet, which utilized a comic-book presentation and a direct, informal style to talk about sexually related issues, came under heavy fire from Yang Ko-ping (楊克平), principal at the Cardinal Tien College of Nursing.
The booklet caused a stir when it was first released earlier this year as some legislators found it excessively raunchy.
"I understand that those in the Ministry of Education have good intentions. Underage sex has become a major problem on so many levels in our society," he said at the event hosted by Fu Jen University's faculty of divinity. "However, in trying to curb this problem, the ministry has gone down the wrong road."
Referring to the text titled Youth Experts, Yang complained about the priority of issues in the book.
"Sex is discussed in the first chapter and love in the last. This reverses the natural order of things, and could have the effect of encouraging sex in our junior high school students," he said.
Father Louis Aldrich, head of the faculty of divinity at Fu Jen University said:"it's all about respect for yourself and others."
Aldrich introduced a "promise card" program where cards are given to students who have promised to abstain from sex until marriage, upon which they give the card to their partner as a sign of their commitment.
Father Aldrich credits the US' falling teen pregnancy rate to the rise of abstinence-only programs.
Yao Li-ying (
Yao said he objected to non-abstinence sex education methods such as asking students to practice putting on a condom.
"I consider a lot of this a form of child harassment. We protect our kids from sex at the movies with the classification system, but then we put this type of thing in their textbooks. It's just not consistent," she said.
When asked by a member of the audience whether they were more interested in the "process" of having an abstinence-only sex education program or the "results" of lowering sex related problems in teens, members of the panel had differing responses.
"There can be no result without process," said Hsiao Hui-ying (蕭惠瑛), a lecturer at the Fu Jen University's faculty of divinity.
On the other hand, Yang said "I think the media in Taiwan should bear a lot of responsibility. If only they spent as much time on the problem of underage sex as on the campaign to oust President Chen Shui-bian (
"We can only control the process, not the results," she said.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a bill to enhance cooperation with Taiwan on drone development and to reduce reliance on supply chains linked to China. The proposed Blue Skies for Taiwan Act of 2026 was introduced by Republican US senators Ted Cruz and John Curtis, and Democratic US senators Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim. The legislation seeks to ease constraints on Taiwan-US cooperation in uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), including dependence on China-sourced components, limited access to capital and regulatory barriers under US export controls, a news release issued by Cruz on Wednesday said. The bill would establish a "Blue UAS
RSS