What grade does China's sexual education for its massive population of teenagers deserve?

A failing one.

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That was the well-known psychologist and sexologist Hu Peicheng's evaluation of the country's sex-education during an interview with the Southern Daily on the sidelines of the Fourth Guangzhou Sex Culture Expo in early November.

Hu's words underlined China's outdated sexual education for its massive teenage population.

The number of children aged six to 14 has hit 200 million, according to figures released by China's education ministry in 2005. Within the next few years, these children will go through the country's sex education system.

Beijing deserves public praise after it pioneered the fight against AIDS when it created an AIDS education and prevention book for junior and senior high school students, making it possible for adolescent students to learn about rarely-taught sex education. The book promoted safe sex practices such as condom use and discouraged pre-marital sex, the Beijing Morning News reported on December 19.

Students from 80 per cent of junior and senior high schools around the capital can access the book, which is meant to raise awareness of AIDS protection in a country that is seeing an increasing number of HIV/AIDS patients.

The number of Chinese HIV/AIDS cases at the end of October was 183,733, up from 144,089 at the end of 2005 according to data released by The Health Ministry in November. But both Beijing and the United Nations estimate the true number of cases to be around 650,000.

Apart from explaining what AIDS is and how it is spread, the book focuses on the USAID 'abc' approach to fighting HIV-AIDS: abstinence, being faithful, and using condoms.

Experts emphasized the importance of teaching about condom use, saying teachers can teach the topic based on the local culture and students' knowledge, according to the report.

Executive editor in chief Ma Yinghua said several teachers may have difficulty in teaching some parts of the book concerning relations with the opposite sex.

Ma advised teachers to turn to example analysis and group discussion, instructing students to learn in a natural way, the paper said.

Sex has long been taboo in China, where sex is considered a dirty thing.

Mothers are likely to tell their children they are born from stone in response to questions about where babies come from.

Even teachers themselves are embarrassed when talking about it.

A survey quoted by the Southern Daily found most Chinese students learned about sex through books and the media but seldom in the classroom, media report said.

"The government hands out lots of brochures on AIDS prevention. But teachers, especially primary school teachers, are not willing to teach this information to students and avoid it by tearing some pages out of the book," Hu said during an interview with the Southern Weekly.

Liu Ying, a 16-year expert on sexual education and co-editor of the book, said some parents did not want their children to learn about sex, but most of them hoped teachers could tell students in a 'moderate' way, according to the report, which did not specify the meaning of 'moderate'.