Sex education book made on teenagers' suggestions released in China

Asian Economic News, Sept 14, 2004

BEIJING, Sept. 8 Kyodo

A city near Shanghai recently released a sex education textbook based on suggestions from teenagers, China's official Xinhua News Agency reported, but local authorities have declined to discuss the subject.

The Education Bureau of the Haishu District of Ningbo, a coastal city in Zhejiang Province, compiled the textbook for primary and middle school students after editors consulted with local teens, Xinhua reported.

The book's 24 chapters cover pregnancy, AIDS, sexual harassment, and use of condoms, the report said.

The textbook aims to ''clear the doubts of teenagers on sex-related issues,'' Xinhua said.

But editor Xu Xiaohong said she had ''finished giving media interviews'' about the textbook, and an Education Bureau director said he was ''unclear'' about the textbook.

Sex education textbooks are used in Shanghai, Harbin and other parts of China, but compared with some Western countries they are relatively uncommon because sex is generally not openly discussed.

Parents seldom discuss it with their children, apparently hoping their sons and daughters will abstain.

Still, the Education Ministry has a sex education curriculum that is updated every five years, and in the 1960s China eradicated common sexually transmitted diseases through education, a Western diplomat specialized in health care said.

But syphilis and gonorrhea are on the rise again, he said, because ''promiscuity is coming back.''

Xinhua said, however, China lacks standardized sex education textbooks, which causes difficulty for teachers. It said the textbook in Ningbo, with a population of 807,000, was a first for Zhejiang Province.

''China is still a rather traditional country, so (authorities) do not really pay attention to sex education,'' said Liu Fengqin, a TV columnist and former planned-birth officer in Beijing. ''(But) under pressure from experts, they've started to consider it more.''

Experts stepped up pressure about eight years ago, Liu said.

And there are textbooks issued, mainly aimed at primary and middle school pupils, that focus on sexual health, including HIV/AIDS, which has claimed about 1 million people in China.

Government officials favor sex education textbooks to reduce HIV/AIDS, said He Han, managing director of the China AIDS and Sexual Disease Prevention Foundation. ''You can't say there are enough texts, but the government is starting to care. There's a process.''