Education advocacy groups yesterday condemned a junior-high school teacher in Kinmen County for including sexist, explicit and vulgar language in a grade-nine mid-term exam.
The Jincheng Junior High teacher, surnamed Weng (翁), graduated from National Taiwan Normal University’s Department of Health Promotion and Health Education, and yet conducted themselves in an inappropriate manner, the Action Alliance on Basic Education and the Taiwan Association for Sexuality Education said.
Describing the teacher as “unfit,” the alliance said that it was not an isolated incident, but the result of a severe and systemic lack of sex education training among educators.
Photo: Wu Cheng-ting, Taipei Times
The National Alliance of Parents Organization (NAPO) also released a statement expressing its strong disapproval on behalf of parents nationwide.
Parents send their children to school to receive an education, not to be sexually harassed, they said, calling on the Ministry of Education and the Kinmen County Government to examine its policies and measures.
The exam also referred to sexual stimulation of the anus and a slang term for semen, among other sexually explicit language, which constitutes severe sexual harassment, NAPO chairman Hsiao Tung-yuan (蕭東原) said.
Sex is not a tool for sensationalism, and although it arouses curiosity and a desire to explore among teenagers, sex education must be taught using language that demonstrates love and respect, the Taiwan Association for Sexuality Education said in a statement.
The language was discriminatory, mocking and demeaning, which deviates from the core values that should form the foundation of sex education, the association said.
Sex education should not be used to connect to young people, shock or be deemed “popular,” but be approached in a positive and healthy way as a form of character building, it added.
The teacher in 2023 received an outstanding educator award.
The Kinmen Department of Education said that an investigation into the incident is ongoing and appropriate disciplinary action would be taken.
Jincheng Junior High is also completing an internal investigation and would decide disciplinary action based on the conclusions, Kinmen Director of Education Sun Li-chi (孫麗琪) said.
The content was allegedly sourced from the first two chapters of a grade nine health and physical education textbook published by Kang Hsuan, Action Alliance on Basic Education chairman Wang Han-yang (王瀚陽) said.
Chapter one taught “youth sexual happiness” while chapter two detailed prevention of sexually transmitted diseases, she added.
Data published by the alliance recently showed that the syphilis infection rate among girls aged 15 to 19 rose 53-fold in the past 10 years, while teen gonorrhea infections increased seven-fold in the past 12 years.
The alarming increases show a lack of sex education in Taiwan, which, coupled with this case, show that incorrect values and information are being taught in schools, it said.
Additional reporting by Wu Cheng-ting
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