Review of Provision of Sexuality Education in Schools

Prof Tan Tai Yong asked the Minister for Education (a) how many external providers conduct sexuality education programmes in schools currently; (b) how many of these providers are paid a fee and how many do so free-of-charge; (c) whether there is a difference in feedback and evaluations from the students for the paid versus free programmes; (d) in view of it being more than five years since the Ministry engaged external providers for sexuality education programmes, whether it will conduct a review on this practice and will the practice continue in the future; and (e) how much has the Ministry spent on engaging external providers for such programmes since 2009.

The Senior Minister of State for Education (Ms Indranee Rajah) (for the Minister for Education): Madam, MOE Sexuality Education is taught by selected teachers trained in sexuality education. Schools may engage external providers to conduct supplementary sexuality education programmes based on the needs of their students.

In 2014, seven schools engaged four approved external providers for $20,000. There were no free-of-charge programmes from 2011 to 2014. Since 2009, schools spent an estimated amount of $460,000 on such supplementary programmes, an average of $8 per student.

MOE has a stringent vetting process to select suitable external providers, trainers and relevant programmes for sexuality education in schools. Teachers sit in to observe the programme and provide feedback to MOE on the quality of the trainers and relevance of the programmes. Schools also collect feedback from their students. MOE audits schools to ensure that the programmes are delivered according to what has been approved. MOE is in the process of reviewing the system of external providers. This is part of the regular review process.

During one such review, MOE had in 2011 decided that the four-hour Relationship Module which was conducted by external providers for first year pre-university students would cease from 2015. To streamline and reduce overlaps, some of the more important learning objectives were incorporated into the revised 2015 Sexuality Education curriculum taught by MOE teachers.

Prof Tan Tai Yong (Nominated Member): I thank the Senior Minister of State for her answer. I seek a further clarification. According to the MOE Framework for Sexuality Education, the community is a critical partner in this whole process. Am I to understand that the use of services by external vendors constitutes part of that community partnership or is it simply a form of outsourcing?

Ms Indranee Rajah: The majority of the programmes are actually taught by MOE-trained teachers. The external vendors are used or engaged by schools on occasions where it is not within the scope of what the MOE teachers are teaching. And this is usually when the external vendors have a particular expertise. Pornography, the cyber aspects, for example, those are areas which you may go to an external provider for; cyber safety, influence of the media and also Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs)/HIV prevention, which is best done by those who are medically, who are experts in this area.

I think when the schools talk about community, what we really mean is the entire support system behind this because part of it also has to do values, the approach, your beliefs and what your parents feel is appropriate for you. So, in that broader context, the community has a part to play.

Mr Zaqy Mohamad (Chua Chu Kang): I thank the Senior Minister of State for her clarification and answer. Earlier on, the Senior Minister of State mentioned that one area in which you would engage external providers would be in the areas of the cyber safety aspects. Recently, we had this case where 31 children being sexually groomed, for example. It was quite surprising to me. It seemed that the first 30 did not know that this was an issue until the 31st and then, the person was caught.

So, do you think that this could be enhanced, and whether our programmes on cyber wellness also includes sexual grooming and whether we can strengthen that, so that the kids are more aware in terms of the dangers in the near future.

This is more of a question of effectiveness and whether we can strengthen this aspect with our private providers, and whether this should instead be in-sourced as well, given the dangers.

Ms Indranee Rajah: I thank the Member for raising this important topic. I think that we would agree certainly that there is room for it to be strengthened. With children, there is a range of ages, so obviously, what a Primary school child might understand would be quite different from somebody who is in Secondary school or at Junior College level. And at all stages, it is age appropriate.

Our general approach is that where possible, we would like it to be taught by MOE teachers but in areas where it needs a certain external expertise, especially when it comes to cyber wellness, understanding behaviour on the Internet, understanding how people can fall prey to predators on the Internet, sometimes you need external expertise for that. The Member's broader point about the need to strengthen this area and to ensure that our children are safe, that is taken on board and in fact, safety in the sexual context is something that MOE takes very seriously.