The EOC has been striving to combat sexual harassment across different sectors, and advance gender equality in society. Yet our objectives cannot be achieved without comprehensive and proper sexuality education in schools, which is crucial for equipping the younger generation with proper knowledge and skills to make respectful and healthy choices about relationship and sex. For this reason, the EOC has been advocating for reforms to the existing sexuality education, which follows a school-based approach with no stipulated teaching hours and dedicated curriculum.

In order to find out the actual situation of implementation of sexuality education in local schools with a view to making recommendations to the Government, education sector and NGOs on the overall strategy for enhancing sexuality education, the EOC conducted A Study on Comprehensive Sexuality Education in Secondary Schools, by sending questionnaires to all 473 local secondary schools, and conducting focused group discussions with the principals or teachers of selected schools that responded to the questionnaire. The findings of the Study were released at a press conference on 22 November. 

The Study showed that out of the 203 schools that responded to the questionnaire, 13.8% did not teach any sexuality education at all in the classrooms, and 12.3% did not organise any activities related to the subject during the 2018/19 school year. A majority (85.2%) of the schools included elements of sexuality education in different subjects, such as Science/Integrated Science and Biology, and only 2.0% of the schools taught sexuality education as a separate subject. As for teaching hours, nearly half of the responded schools said they allocated five hours or less to sexuality education classes, while 90% allocated 20 hours or below during the 2018/19 school year. One of the major reasons cited was lack of time, “as the secondary school curriculum is already jam-packed”.

When asked about the adequacy of sexuality education, almost half of the school representatives (49.7%) said sexuality education was insufficient (43.3%) or very insufficient (6.4%) in Hong Kong. The inadequacy also lied in the curriculum, as most schools tended to focus heavily on the biological and physiological aspects, such as reproduction, and overlook the psychological and social aspects, including healthy relationships, sexual consent, image-based sexual violence and gender equality. To add to the problem, teachers were ill-equipped for teaching the subject, as nearly half (47.6%) of the responded schools said teachers who taught sexuality education had not taken any professional development course related to the subject.

Without a question, sexuality education in Hong Kong is in dire need of revamp. The EOC recommends that the Government should consider reactivating and updating the 1997 Guidelines on Sex Education in Schools, stipulating a standardised structure and recommended teaching hours for secondary schools. Professional development training should also be made mandatory for teachers teaching sexuality education, and that consideration should be given on developing and/or providing funding for developing a comprehensive set of teaching materials for use by local schools. In particular, funding should be provided for developing sexuality education materials tailored to the needs of minority students, including students with special educational needs, non-ethnic Chinese students and those with different sexual orientation and gender identity, in light of the specific challenges they face, such as cultural and language differences.   

As for the schools, besides reviewing their existing curricula, adequate resources and incentives should be provided to teachers to undergo training. It is also recommended that each school should set up a designated post of sexuality education coordinator and that adequate support, such as sexuality education resources be provided to parents.         

As Dr Ferrick CHU Chung-man, Executive Director (Operations) said, “To tackle sexual harassment from its root, comprehensive sexuality education is essential.” It is important that the Government, educators, school boards, parents, health professionals, NGOs and other stakeholders collaborate to create comprehensive and up-to-date curricula on sexuality education for students, such that we can have a healthy next generation and a society free of sexual harassment.
 

• Read the EOC’s press release
• Read the full report of the Study
• Review the infographics