Replies to LegCo questions
LCQ3: Sex education services
Following is a question by the Hon Lee Cheuk-yan and a written reply by the
Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today
(February 25):
Question:
At present, the two major units providing outreaching sex education in schools
are the Adolescent Health Programme under the Department of Health, and the
Family Planning Association of Hong Kong (HKFPA). However, I have learnt that,
due to resource constraints, they cannot provide such services in languages
other than Chinese, and non-Chinese speaking students are therefore unable to
benefit from the services. In this connection, will the Government inform this
Council whether:
(a) it has assessed if the above situation constitutes a breach of the
provisions in the Race Discrimination Ordinance (Cap. 602); and
(b) it has any plan to provide outreaching sex education for non-Chinese
speaking students (including allocating additional resources to HKFPA for
organising sex education seminars in English and producing more sex education
resource materials in English); if so, of the details of the plan; if not, the
reasons for that?
Reply:
President,
Sex education is an important subject in moral and civic education. Currently,
the primary and secondary school curricula have already included sex education
and relevant topics. Besides, the Department of Health (DH) and the Family
Planning Association of Hong Kong (HKFPA) also provide sex education services,
such as outreaching sex education workshops and seminars.
My reply to the two parts of the question is as follows-
(a) & (b) At present, the Adolescent Health Programme under the DH provides "Sex
Education Workshops" (the Workshops) for Form One to Form Seven secondary school
students, teaching them the correct values and knowledge about sex. The
Workshops are designed mainly in Chinese and are usually conducted in Cantonese.
Nevertheless, the DH will organise Workshops for schools which admit non-Chinese
speaking students upon demand, supplemented by teaching materials with English
translation and simultaneous interpretation. We consider that the existing
arrangements can adequately meet the needs of different schools and students in
Hong Kong, and constitute no breach to the Race Discrimination Ordinance.
Besides, the DH also plans to translate the entire series of Workshops into
English, which will be launched in the 2009-10 academic year.
The DH has contacted individual schools with religious background or ethnic
minority students before with regard to the provision of outreaching sex
education services. However, some considered it more appropriate for the schools
themselves to provide sex education for their students. The DH will continue to
monitor the demand of schools for outreaching sex education services.
According to the HKFPA, its outreaching school sex education programmes are
mainly conducted in Cantonese, but programmes in English will be provided for
non-Chinese speaking students upon requests from individual schools. In
addition, the HKFPA's sex education website and teaching materials are
bilingual. At present, the outreaching school sex education services of HKFPA
are not subvented by the Government. HKFPA will consider providing the
appropriate sex education services having regard to the needs of the community.
Ends/Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Issued at HKT 14:36
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