More than 40 years ago, sex education in Taiwan’s junior-high schools was concentrated on chapter 14 of the health education textbook. For many people who are now in their 50s, this may be an unforgettable, but only vaguely remembered, part of their education. The reason for this is that the chapter offered a simple explanation of the anatomy of the male and female sexual organs and of physical phenomena.
However, the reality in the classroom was that many teachers either mentioned it only briefly or skipped it altogether, telling students to read it by themselves. At the time, many Taiwanese schools were for either boys or girls, and even in mixed schools, mixed male and female classes were very rare. Many men still have memories of the blush on their female teachers’ faces and the excitement, sighs or disappointments during class.
Today, Taiwan still lags far behind the world’s advanced countries in sex education for adolescents and it fails in not only the biological aspect but also the social, economic and health aspects.
Take the prestigious University of Cambridge for example: The school offers free condoms to its 3,500 freshmen and each can take up to 60 condoms per week. When National Taiwan University and National Taiwan Normal University students offered free condoms at freshman orientations or in student dormitories, the school administrations tried to interfere.
In Taiwan today, there are tragic reports every few weeks of teenage girls giving birth to, abandoning or killing their babies, or of teenage parents committing suicide. Both the educational and legislative branches are responsible for this. Schools are filled with conservative, outdated, hypocritical and ignorant morals.
On June 5, the Guardian ran an article headlined, “Swedish sex education has time for games and mature debate,” saying that many Swedish secondary school students received four hours of sex education per week for one month to two months. Sex education in Sweden has been an important part of compulsory education since 1956. Such education extends beyond sex to alcohol, mental health and other subjects, which are also covered in the UK by PSHE — personal, social, health and economic education.
By comparing UK and Swedish sex education, the Guardian said that since sex education is not required by law in the UK, despite the high-quality sex education at many UK schools, some schools make it a minor subject and exclude it from the regular curriculum by, for example, arranging it at less important time slots near the end of a semester, or conducting it only briefly and symbolically.
Swedish students are taught anatomy in primary school. This year, a Swedish children’s educational cartoon aimed at three to six-year-olds featuring dancing penises and vaginas has become popular online.
The course for 14 and 15-year-olds is more advanced. Award-winning teacher Jessica Holmstrom teaches “sexual consent” with a short animated film she made.
“It’s as simple as tea,” the voice-over says. “If they don’t want to drink it, don’t make them drink it. If they are unconscious, don’t make them tea. Whether it’s tea or sex, consent is everything.”
Swedish sex education aims to challenge prejudices and encourage discussion about people of different faiths and ages, as well homosexual and transgender relationships. It also discusses news events such as transgender cases in class. Using condoms to avoid pregnancy or prevent diseases is another important part.
Although sex education mainly focuses on the biological, the social, cultural, legal and economic environments that students face also need to be discussed. More importantly, teachers should not do all the talking; they should lead students to think about the issues, search for information, analyze it and then continue the discussions.
The UK birth rate among 15- to-19-year-olds is 19.7 births per 1,000 women, while in Sweden the figure is 5.2 per 1,000. In other words, the former is 3.7 times higher. The Guardian also said that open and successful sex education contributes to the extremely low birth rate among teenage girls in Sweden and poor sex education in the UK cannot compete with it.
At a time when pornographic Web sites are prolific, Taiwan’s educational institutions should hurry to discuss sex education. If conservative forces continue to dominate the issue, there will be more news of sexual crimes, teen pregnancy and abandonment, and infanticide.
Chiang Sheng is an attending physician in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Mackay Memorial Hospital.
Translated by Eddy Chang
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