GUANGZHOU: Local education officials have called for a rethink in sex education efforts, shifting away from textbook-based anatomy teaching and focusing more on morals and relationships.

"Almost all children have been targeted by sex education efforts, so now we should begin to offer courses more related to good behaviour and how to interact with others," Huang Suming, vice-director of the Guangzhou Educational Bureau, said at a working conference on sex education for children on Thursday in Guangzhou.

To protect young people and society as a whole from HIV/AIDS and teenage pregnancy, the capital city of South China's Guangdong Province began introducing sex education classes to children as young as kindergarten in 2004.

Courses on sex and health are already offered in 41 experimental schools, including 28 primary and middle schools and 13 kindergartens, according to Huang.

A survey conducted by the Guangzhou Educational Bureau last year showed that the number of students under the age of 18 who had engaged in sexual activity or had an abortion was increasing.

"To avoid early sexual activity, youngsters need to learn sex knowledge through courses, rather than through unhealthy sources such as pornographic websites, videos and books," Huang said.

According to Huang, sex courses will be put on the official teaching agenda in all schools in the city, although some schools have found it difficult to add more classes to the already-crowded curriculum.

"These courses should also give students knowledge of morality, since they should be given a more systematic sex education in school," Huang said.

According to Huang, the new courses on sex should focus less on the human anatomy.

"The new editions of sex and health education textbooks include how to prevent HIV/AIDS and teenage pregnancy and sensitive issues such as masturbation, giving a more detailed introduction to teen students," Huang said.

The books will also focus on sexual psychology, ethics and law, which will help teenage students form good habits, according to Huang.

Zhu Jiaming, vice-director of the Sex Education Association of Guangdong Province, said a complete sex education is very important to a child's future psychological development.

"Sex education consists of sex knowledge and morality education. The latter focuses on teaching children how to develop good relationships with their partners at an early age," Zhu told China Daily.

(China Daily 06/26/2006 page3)