Reflection over the guidelines on sex education in schools, 1997

Recent research findings by various organizations reveal that youngsters today are getting more sexually active than their predecessors. Premarital sexual experience and teenage pregnancy are becoming a major problem. Based on these findings, the Guidelines on Sex Education to Schools were published in 1997. This paper has made an analysis of the Guidelines and found that they have indeed broadened the concept of sex education and redesigned the conceptual framework. However a lot of problems especially in the aspect of implementation are not yet resolved. The education system and teachers’ attitude are the major problems hindering the promotion of sex education in Hong Kong. But China’s experience shows that sex education has its significant role to play in a changing society and that there is a possibility to properly implement the sex education curriculum provided that the government and school have the will and the determination. Hong Kong should also overcome these problems and give sex education a proper place in school. Copyright © 2000 The Hong Kong Institute of Education.