When I Was Young

SEX EDUCATION PROGRAMME

Letter from Jennifer Chan

Press Secretary to Minister for Education

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IN RECENT weeks, the Ministry of Education (MOE) has received feedback on the Sexuality Education Programme conducted by Aware, as well as other lesson material not involving Aware. MOE has done a thorough investigation and the following are the Ministry's findings and future steps.

MOE and the schools do not promote alternative lifestyles to our students. MOE's framework for sexuality education reflects the mainstream views and values of Singapore society, where the social norm consists of the married heterosexual family unit.

Today, schools are allowed to engage external vendors to supplement MOE's sexuality education programme. MOE has reviewed the internal processes for selecting and monitoring vendors and found that they can be improved. MOE will put in more stringent processes to ensure that training materials and programmes delivered in schools are in line with the Ministry's framework on sexuality education. Schools will suspend the engagement of external vendors until the new vetting processes are completed.

The Ministry is also reviewing ways to provide parents with more information about sexuality education in the specific schools that their children are in.

MOE has examined Aware's "Comprehensive Sexuality Education: Basic Instructor Guide". The Guide contains some positive aspects, like the accurate information provided on STIs/HIV and role-play practice for students to say no to sex.

However, MOE's assessment is that in some other aspects, the Guide does not conform to MOE's guidelines. In particular, some suggested responses in the instructor guide are explicit and inappropriate, and convey messages which could promote homosexuality or suggest approval of premarital sex.

In view of this, Aware's programmes in schools will be suspended and subjected to the new vetting processes.

MOE has also investigated feedback about materials used during General Paper (GP) lessons in junior colleges which carry information on alternative lifestyles. These materials and lessons did not involve Aware. GP lessons are meant to promote critical thinking and discussion on contemporary issues.

MOE investigations showed that the teachers had used these materials to initiate discussion on family structures, and not to promote alternative lifestyles.

Nevertheless, MOE will remind school leaders and teachers to exercise greater professional discretion in guiding their students when such topics are discussed. They should also adhere to social norms and values of our mainstream society.

Parents are ultimately responsible for inculcating values to their children. MOE's sexuality education programme aims to complement parents' role in helping students make informed, responsible and values-based decisions regarding sexuality.

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From TODAY, Voices – Thursday, 07-May-2009

Ong Dai Lin and Alicia Wong, dailin@mediacorp.com.sg

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THE schools had found the workshops appropriate and did not get any negative feedback from pupils and parents.

But now, the Ministry of Education (MOE) has suspended the sex education programme by the Association of Women for Action and Research (Aware) after looking at its instructors' guide.

Sex education programmes by all other external vendors have also been suspended so they can be subjected to a more stringent vetting process.

The MOE has found a need for improvement in the "internal processes" for selecting and monitoring vendors to ensure they follow its framework for sexuality programmes.

Aware's Comprehensive Sexuality Education programme did not conform "in some aspects" to these guidelines, the MOE said in a letter to the media. In particular, parts of Aware's instructors' guide "convey messages which could promote homosexuality or suggest approval of pre-marital sex".

Aware president Dana Lam told Today she is "not surprised" by the MOE's decision. "It goes to reason MOE will have to do something (given the public interest in the programme). We're also open to seeing what has to be done," said Ms Lam.

As the women's group prepares to review and modify its instructor guide if needed, it will keep the CSE's key principle of informing young people to make choices according to the values of their upbringing, Ms Lam added. "We stand by the programme. After all, we've been running it for almost two years."

In a statement yesterday, Aware said, "Like all instructor guides, ours contains far more information than is used.

"The guide includes possible responses for instructors should certain topics, such as homosexuality and premarital sex, be raised during the sessions. They're not necessarily the responses actually used, as our instructors always use language and terms appropriate to their audience."

Ms Charlotte Wong, vice-president of the ousted Aware executive committee, told Today that MOE "is doing the right thing".

"Aware keeps shouting about providing choice and empowering the youth in decision-making in their sexual life ... On the other hand, CSE does not talk about abstinence; they steer clear from abstinence as choice," said Ms Wong on a personal note. Saying that she felt a "sense of calm" after hearing the news, she added that if the CSE sticks to MOE guidelines and caters to a majority of conservative parents, "we shall be all right".

For some parents, the suspension of the CSE programme is a welcome move. Ms Geraldine Wee, a mother of a seven-year-old boy, said: "It's good that people's views are respected ... Asian parents are generally conservative."

The 29-year-old scriptwriter said: "I was an unwed mother so it's even more important for me that my child has the right values and doesn't make the same mistake."

Soon, parents will know more about the sex education programmes in their child's school. The MOE is looking at ways to provide this information — which Ms Wee welcomed because "we should have a role to decide what the child is taught".

When contacted for further queries on its letter, a MOE spokesperson told Today it has received more than 100 emails and phone calls, "many providing similar feedback".

An online petition expressing concerns about Aware's CSE programme, and supposedly to be given to MOE, is also being circulated — with 7,000 signatories so far.

The debate caused by Aware's workshops for secondary schools has even generated argument about sexuality issues being raised in General Paper (GP) classes in junior colleges.

MOE is investigating materials used during these lessons that carry information on alternative lifestyles.

Pioneer Junior College principal Tan-Kek Lee Yong, for example, told Today the school had removed a presentation slide on family and culture, which showed two females kissing, after feedback from a parent.

Mrs Tan said the context of the slide was "sociological" and "clearly academic" with "factual information next to the picture".

She added: "Such materials, which students can easily retrieve (when they do research for GP), should be contextualized within societal norms for discussion so that students receive appropriate guidance."

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From TODAY, News – Thursday, 07-May-2009

AWARE SAGA

Letter From Sabina-Leah Fernandez

I REFER to 'What Women Really Want' (May 2). While it is true that we have the recession and Influenza A (H1N1) outbreak to worry about, I hope the 2,000 people who showed up at last Saturday's Aware's EGM, queueing for two to three hours and sitting in a room for several more, are testament to the fact that this issue matters to Singaporean men and women.

While the debate has centred on homosexuality, the crux of what we was discussed on Saturday by men and women of every race, religion and sexual orientation was this: There is a place for religion and a place for secularism, and while those two spaces can live harmoniously side by side, they must be kept separate. It is not acceptable for anyone of any religious affiliation to enforce their beliefs on others, particularly in a secular environment.

If the new exco had not been voted out, if 1,000 people had not shouted and screamed to have ex-president Josie Lau's executive committee removed, it would have set an unhealthy precedent to others with strong opinions. It would have sent the message that it is okay to steamroll into any organisation and enforce your personal beliefs.

Singaporeans standing up for what they believe in is a win for civil society, for Non-Governmental Organisations, for keeping secular organisations secular and religious organisations, religious.

Most of all, it shows people care enough to fight for what they believe is right. And this beats an apathetic I'm-too-busy-worrying-about-my-bottom-line society any day.

The implications of the Aware issue concerned not only women, but men too. It encouraged mature, professional open-minded engagement between various groups of differing opinions.

From TODAY, Voices – Tuesday, 05-May-2009

AWARE'S CSE PROGRAMME

Reach will send feedback to 'relevant ministries'

ESTHER NG, estherng@mediacorp.com.sg

OVER the past month, the Aware saga has spawned a fringe festival of views and petitions on various blogs and Internet discussion boards, including the Government's feedback portal.

The Reach portal has received about 50 postings about Aware's Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) programme, most of them critical.

Many of the postings take issue with statements from Aware's guide for trainers, such as "anal sex — can be healthy and neutral if practised with consent and with a condom" and "homosexuality is perfectly normal". One parent asked: "What is going on in our society? … It is so perverted. Is Singapore going down this slippery road as well?"

Another forum contributor, what_aware_show_your_kids, questioned how the Ministry of Education (MOE) could view the Aware course as "promoting pro-family values in young kids".

On April 29, the MOE said that it had not received any objections from parents about Aware's CSE programme. Many parents took issue with this statement, saying that the fact there had not been any complaints did not mean Aware's content was appropriate.

One irate parent wrote: "MOE better uphold what it preaches — that it observes and value good morals as taught by the major religions here — that homosexuality has no place in early teens' minds."

Last Friday, the MOE announced it was investigating Aware's sexuality education programme run in some schools after receiving "some" complaints from parents.

Apart from homosexuality, the manual's statement on premarital sex being "neutral" also upset some. "They encourage girls to carry condoms with them, for what? To avoid pregnancy? To avoid abortion? Or is it to encourage sex?" wrote Wrong Stuff. "In the first place, the correct approach is to avoid sex. Sex before marriage is wrong."

A few congratulated Ms Josie Lau and her team for "standing up against homosexual values". Despite the team being voted out last Saturday, they agreed that the short-lived new Aware exco had achieved its objective of highlighting issues within CSE programme.

They were interested to know "how MOE and parents can engage to develop a comprehensive sex education programme for schools which reflects the mainstream views and values of Singapore society".

So, what will Reach do with all this feedback that it has received?

Reach chairman Amy Khor told Today that when "substantial feedback is received on a particular issue, Reach will collate and send the feedback in a timely manner to the relevant ministries" to respond and for "follow-up action where they deem appropriate".

Ms Khor noted that while the posts about the Aware issue, over three separate discussion threads, were emotive, there were no racially and religiously offensive comments.

"Reach did not remove any of the Aware threads on our discussion forum. As a norm, we will only delete comments which are clearly meant to create mischief, seditious, personal attacks or attacks against a race or religion," said Dr Khor.

From TODAY, News – Tuesday, 05-May-2009