More regulation of sexuality education in schools
Sexuality education can always been a contentious topic – with no clear consensus among parents and schools alike on who should be the ones responsible for this. Even school teachers – who face their students on a daily basis – do encounter difficulties in broaching this sensitive subject to their students. As such, schools often depend on external trainers to conduct such programmes on their premises. However, there was public uproar last year when it was found that in some schools, the sexuality education programme contained messaging that condoned homosexuality and stated that anal sex was ‘healthy’ if consensual and done with a condom. This particular programme was developed by AWARE, which was found to have overstepped the guidelines set by MOE.

Food for thought:
Across the board, there will be greater screening of the messages on sexuality that are going out to students. Parents who are jittery at the thought of facing questions from their kids will take comfort in the fact that their children are less likely to be exposed to ideas and values that they themselves are not ready to grapple with for chances are, the content will probably take on a less liberal slant, with more nods to current societal norms and values. . However, the heightened monitoring should not be added reason why the responsibility for sexuality education should be left to schools.  Future updates from MOE on its sexuality education curriculum will likely reawaken the debate on this issue, and refresh concerns about the impact of other sources of information and influence such as social networks and the mass media.