Crossposted on Amplify
China has a one-child policy. And they don’t teach comprehensive sex education in school. This leads to some frightening statistics, for instance in China there are 23 million abortions very year.
Finally, Chinese youth are getting the sex education they need. A Guttmacher report indicated,
More and more Chinese adolescents are engaging in premarital sexual activity. As a result, the numbers of unplanned pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among Chinese young adults have increased markedly.
Today, news is out that about the FIRST sex education class taught at the primary school level. The Chinese government is taking steps to address the lack of safe sex in their society, a long overdue step. Having traveled in China two years ago, I remember talking to many people, especially in rural areas, that lacked a fundamental knowledge about contraception.
Classes will be taught by experts from the Sex and Gender Research Institution at Beijing Forestry University. (Side note...a forestry university?! Providing the teachers for the sex ed class?! hmm...) The class will start in one school, and go to 13 more schools soon.
Global Times reports that over 90% of parents indicated that sex education needs to be taught in school. As China is rapidly modernizing, and more and more young people are engaging in pre-marital sex, it is crucial that their youth have all the working knowledge afforded through a comprehensive sex education program.
I hope that this program is successful, and that we can see sex education taught in all Chinese schools in the near future.
Dan Jubelirer is a 2010 Netroots Fellow at Amplify, a youth-driven community dedicated to promoting sexual health and reproductive justice.