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Parliamentary Replies

November 22, 2010

Sexuality Education

Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament

Mr Terry Lee, Nominated MP

Question

To ask the Minister for Education (a) how effective is the sexuality education programs in schools; (b) over the last 3 years, what is the trend in numbers of pregnant students (i) in schools; and (ii) dropping out or changing schools; and (c) how can these programs be further improved.

Response

MOE regularly reviews the effectiveness of sexuality education in schools and takes steps to improve the content and delivery of the programme.

At the school level, teachers use questionnaire surveys, journal reflections and informal discussions to gather student feedback on the sexuality education programme. Reports from schools indicate that the programme is effective in increasing student understanding about sexuality matters, including the negative consequences of teenage sexual activity. Parental support for the programme has also been quite positive as reported by the schools. Although parents have the choice to opt their children out of the sexuality education programme, the opt-out rate is less than 1%.

Over the last 3 years from 2007 to 2009, there has been a decline in the incidence of STI/HIV among teenagers, teenage pregnancies, teenage abortions and teenage live births. The teenage pregnancy rate was 2196 in 2007 and declined by about 4% and 11% in 2008 and 2009 respectively.1

Not all students inform the school if they become pregnant.2 Thus, we are not able to establish the exact number of pregnant teenagers who have dropped out of school. However, we have seen a decrease in the overall dropout rate from 3% in 2005 to 1.5% in 2009. Schools work with parents and community partners to support students who are known to be pregnant. School counsellors will follow up on students who drop out and refer them to community support services. In addition, MOE’s readmission policy also enables such students to be readmitted back to the school system.

MOE will continue to review the content and teaching approaches to sexuality education regularly to ensure that it remains relevant to our students. A steering committee which includes medical professionals, educators, health education experts, family life educators and counsellors is chaired by the Director General of Education to oversee this process. In reviewing the curriculum and implementation of sexuality education in schools, the Steering Committee also consults COMPASS [COmmunity and PArents in Support of Schools] to take into account the views and concerns of parents and the community. MOE had already started the process of refreshing the sexuality education framework and curriculum to take into consideration societal changes and the new media.

Footnote

  1. The percentage change is computed as follows: (Previous year’s figures - Current year’s figures / Previous year’s figures)* 100. ↵
  2. The data on teen pregnancies come from MOH and it is derived from the number of teen live births + number of teen abortions. MOH is prohibited from divulging the NRICs of the abortion cases due to the Termination of Pregnancy Act. For the teen live births, the information is owned by ICA. Without a full database of all the teenagers who are pregnant, it is difficult to establish accurately how many are still in school system during or after the year of pregnancy. ↵