Sex education drive to target school children

A Chinese NGO released a series of video lectures over the weekend, aiming to provide support to the country's HIV/AIDS and sex education campaigns.

The lectures, issued by the AIDS Prevention Education Project for Chinese Youth, consist of 51 videos and target students of primary and high school aged between six and 18.

The lectures are based on the experiences from years' of practice on sex education conducted in more than 1,100 Youth Love Stations — pilot programs initiated by the project in schools around the country.

Contributions are also made from experts, including Gu Mingyuan , one of China's most influential scholars in the field of comparative education, Tao Xiping, vice-president of Chinese Education Association, and Zhang Meimei, associate professor from China Normal University.

By providing comprehensive sex education, the lectures will not only teach students about gender differences and safe sex, they will also aim to convey the basic values of "love with respect" to young people, said Zhang Yinjun, director of the project.

She said the video lectures will be held first in the Youth Love Stations and are expected to be available in all primary and high schools around the country. "The lectures will be free of charge," she said.

Sex education is not a required course in China's nine-year compulsory education system. Sex education is now an optional course in college, and the duration has been shortened to one semester.

The country has taken steps to break its silence on sex. In 2016, the Ministry of Education issued a guideline suggesting that higher education institutions should create courses to teach students about sex and reproductive health. But as most schools lack previous experiences of conducting sex education, sex education in China is currently mainly carried out by NGOs and private schools in pilot projects.

"Sex education is an essential part to the heathy growth of young people. Facing the challenge of the HIV/AIDS prevalence, which is now threatening the younger generation, the video lecture will give a strong support to the sex education at schools," Gu said.