Saturday, October 31, 2009

Asia

The state of sex education programs in Asia is at various stages of development. Indonesia, Mongolia, South Korea have a systematic policy framework for teaching about sex within schools. Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand have assessed adolescent reproductive health needs with a view to developing adolescent-specific training, messages and materials. India has programs aimed at children aged nine to sixteen years. In India, there is a huge debate on the curriculum of sex education and when should it be increased. Attempts by state governments to introduce sex education as a compulsory part of the curriculum have often been met with harsh criticism by political parties, who claim that sex education "is against Indian culture" and would mislead children.[4] (Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal and Pakistan have no coordinated sex education programs.[9])

In Japan, sex education is mandatory from age 10 or 11, mainly covering biological topics such as menstruation and ejaculation.[10]

In China and Sri Lanka, sex education traditionally consists in reading the reproduction section of biology textbooks. In Sri Lanka they teach the children when they are 17–18 years. However, in 2000 a new five-year project was introduced by the China Family Planning Association to "promote reproductive health education among Chinese teenagers and unmarried youth" in twelve urban districts and three counties. This included discussion about sex within human relationships as well as pregnancy and HIV prevention.[11]

The International Planned Parenthood Federation and the BBC World Service ran a 12-part series known as Sexwise, which discussed sex education, family life education, contraception and parenting. It was first launched in South Asia and then extended worldwide

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