Sex education is just as important as math

The Korea Times

The Korea Times

National

Tue, September 26, 2023 | 07:28

Education

Sex education is just as important as math

Posted : 2014-05-21 15:45

Updated : 2014-05-21 16:13

By Lee Ji-min

"Mommy, how are babies made?" asks a child on the subway. People suddenly gaze at the child's mother, their eyes filled with curiosity and anticipation as they wait for her answer.

"They are made when you hold hands with boys," replies the mother. People chuckle a little. They find the answer cute or even appropriate for the small child, but no one says it wrong.

According to a survey conducted by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the average age for teenagers to have sexual relations is 13.6 years old, and 57.2 percent of such encounters are done without protection.

The survey found that 24.1 percent of teenage girls with sexual experience become pregnant and 70 to 80 percent of them get an abortion.

Every year, the average age for sexual relations among teenagers is getting younger. It's about time that our children are provided with proper and sufficient sex education in their schools.

While the Ministry of Education makes it mandatory for schools to include 15 hours of sex education in their annual curriculum, only five hours are actually taught in schools. Elementary schools spend an average of 5.17 hours and high schools provide 5.5 hours of sex education per year. Middle schools offer only 3.5 hours per year.

What's more serious is that sex education is taught ineffectively and is not sufficient, as students only watch a simple video or listen to some basic, obvious facts recorded on a computer.

"They want practical information, but sex educators are not giving the information they want," said Cha Chi-young, a professor at the division of nursing science at Ewha Womans University.

It is an unfortunate contradiction that students start having sexual relations at the age when they are receiving such little sex education. How Korean education neglects the importance of sex education is outrageous.

There are reasons to explain why sex education is being neglected in Korean society. Students spend 12 years preparing for the college entrance exam and are so busy studying English, mathematics and other priority subjects, that they cannot afford to spare time for something that is not going to be tested.

To prepare themselves for the test, students are losing the chance to learn crucial life skills. Our children deserve better than this.

Effective solutions must be carried out to improve the current systems and authorities should feel obliged to provide our children with sufficient sex education.

Schools expanding the time on sex education and bringing in professional help from specialists outside to give adequate information that students need would be a good start. Schools should also consider hiring counselors, who would readily hold counseling sessions with students whenever they feel the need.

When I was a high school student in Canada, our school had counselors who took care of the administrative work as well as the counseling sessions. Every student was assigned to one of the counselors and had meetings with them regularly. As the time passed, students started to open up to them and discussed their private matters with the counselors.

Whenever they encountered problems, students readily talked about it with the counselors, asking for mature advice and guidelines to follow. If such a system were introduced in to Korean schools, it would contribute greatly to increasing teenagers' awareness about sex.

The Netherlands is a good example. Since the late 1980s, it strengthened sex education and held debates in classes to openly discuss issues related to sex. They now rank the lowest in teenage birth and abortion rates in the world.

Koreans used to be very conservative toward matters such as sex, but society is rapidly changing. Accordingly, education that the next generations go through should also change to suit their needs. That's a mission for us all.

Lee Ji-min studies English linguistics and business administration at the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul.

mj6c2@ktimes.co.kr