A Study On Sexuality Education Programme In Singapore

Sexuality education is a frontier project in the field of education.Many countries in the world have formed more scientific sexuality education programs.Since 2000,the Ministry of Education of Singapore has also promulgated two sexuality education programs for primary school students from fifth grade to Junior College(JC)or College Institution(CI),namely the Growing Years programme(GY)and the Empowered Teens programme(eTeens).The GY programme is for Primary 5-6,lower secondary,upper secondary and JC/CI levels.The eTeens is a programme developed by the Health Promotion Board in collaboration with MOE for Secondary 3 and JC/CI 1 students.Firstly,this study combs the historical context of sexuality education in Singapore since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1965 by using the methods of historical research and bibliographic research.In the 1970 s and 1980 s,sexuality education was not only independent of government management,but also on the edge of schools.The school mainly teached students the knowledge and skills needed for the development of industrialization.Only some communities in the heart of the country undertook the task of conducting sexuality education lectures.In the 1980 s and 1990 s,sexuality education entered the field of schools and was implicit in moral education,religious education and general education curriculum in primary and secondary schools.At this stage,sexuality education in schools has just started and was still in the social service sector,not in the government sector.In the 21 st century,sexuality education in Singapore has entered a turning point.During this period,the Ministry of Education of Singapore formulated a framework of sexuality education covering “school,family and society”and two sexuality education programs,the GY programme and the eTeens programme.So far,sexuality education in Singapore has officially entered the development track.The GY programme and the eTeens programme stipulate the goals,framework,themes and main contents of sexuality education in Singapore.The goals and themes of the two sexuality education programs are divided into primary,secondary and JC or CI.At the same time,there are specific and definite sexuality education teaching and learning resource package,goals and class hour arrangements at each stage.The sexuality education programs in Singapore has been implemented through three approaches,including tutoring courses for Form Teacher Guidance Period(FTGP),science,character and civic education(CCE),family sexuality education and community sexuality education,as well as interdisciplinary teaching methods,case studies,real life scenarios and storytelling methods,to ensure the sexuality education programs of Singapore achieves the greatest results in its implementation.Through the study of the overall contents and implementation mode of Singapore's sexuality education programs,we can see that Singapore's sexuality education not only overemphasizes premarital abstinence,but also overemphasizes heterosexual couples' families as the basic unit of society.However,the experience of sexuality education in Singapore has also provided many inspirations for the development of sexuality education in China: for the government,to formulate guidelines for sexuality education with tripartite participation;for schools,to provide perfect sexuality education curriculum standards,sexuality education textbooks and abundant teachers;for families,to compile the sexuality education textbooks for parents;for community,to provide a strong complement for schools and family;for the above subjects,mutual supervision and management are needed to jointly promote the development of national sexuality education.