Explainer | Is badminton the Hong Kong answer to sexual impulses in schoolchildren? We ask the experts
- Education Bureau sex education suggestion that school-age couples should quell sexual impulses by playing badminton attracts mockery online
A set of teaching materials recently released by the government which advises Hong Kong pupils to avoid premarital sex and consider going to play badminton together to curb sexual urges has been criticised for being “out of touch”.
Critics said the focus should be on teaching young people to respect themselves and be responsible for intimate relationships and that a blanket condemnation of premarital sex was unrealistic.
But the Education Bureau defended its position and emphasised the suggestions it made for the citizenship, economics and society curriculum for Form One to Three pupils was designed to help them make “responsible decisions”.
Here is what the public needs to know about the controversy and how sex education is taught in other places.
1. What does the Hong Kong teaching material suggest?
The support resources for the module on adolescents and intimate relationships under the subject of Citizenship, Economics and Society for Form Three pupils, sex education should not just about teaching young people whether they should have sex, but also nurture the proper values.
Pupils are expected to acquire the knowledge through four topics, including the relationship between love and sex; the importance and ways of setting limits of intimacy; ways to cope with sexual fantasies and impulses, and the consequences of poor handling of intimate relationships.
