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Abstinence advocates slam government's approach to sex education

"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."

Yao Li-ying, principal of Hsinchu's Shu Guang Girls' Senior High School

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 (姚麗英), principal of Hsinchu's Shu Guang Girls' Senior High School, said 90 percent of the girls at her school have taken up the pledge.

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 (陳水扁)."

"We can only control the process, not the results," she said.
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