KUALA LUMPUR: According to a new study published this week, the vast majority of Singapore youth do not know how to use a condom. The study, published by the National University of Singapore, questioned some 900 sexually active teenagers in the country and discovered that most youth do not use, or even know how to use, condoms. It called on the government to boost sexual education in the country in an effort to increase knowledge of ways to protect against disease and unwanted pregnancies. Last year, there were 1,737 pregnancies involving girls under 20 in the republic. The new report comes after Singapore's Education Ministry announced on Wednesday that it had revised and revamped its sex education program to modernize the methods of training and educating the city-state's youth. The Growing Years curriculum, which addresses issues related to relationships and media influences, will now include a greater focus on social networking, its dangers, and what teenagers can do to protect themselves. The ministry also reiterated that sexuality education is not sex education, but observers and teachers say this is simply a way to get around talking about sex in public. It also comes as sex scandals are hitting the country hard, as executives are being charged with paying for sex and having sex in order to seal business dealings. “I am an educator and if this is not sex education, then I don't know what is," said high school teacher Mariam Pho. She told Bikyamasr.com that “the ministry can call it whatever they want, but we will view it as sex education and that is not wrong." The ministry said the program is about the emotional, social and ethical aspects in addition to the physical aspect of sexuality. First started in 2000, Growing Years is conducted at the Primary 5 level through to Junior College or centralized institute level. The expanded new media component of the Growing Years programme is one of the tweaks made after it started talking to students, teachers and principals in 2009 as part of its review. Grace Ng, deputy director of the guidance branch at the Ministry of Education, said, “We understand from the children that they want to be taught how, the skills to navigate the landscape out there. “(For example,) how to handle relationships, what are the no-no's, how do we say ‘no' to peer pressure, how to tell right from wrong, how to understand what they see on websites, or for that matter, on social networks." Complementing Growing Years is the Empowered Teens (eTeens) curriculum, which teaches students about sexually transmitted infections (STIs), protection from unsafe sex, and how to say “no" to pre-marital sex. MOE said the new course materials have been distributed to all primary schools and it will start training teachers to deliver these programs. It also comes as doctors and medical professionals last month called for boosting sex education in the country. According to an online survey published by the Singapore Planned Parenthood Association (SPPA), the most common action to prevent pregnancy remains the “withdrawal" method. The result has left doctors and experts pushing for greater sex education in the country, including on contraceptive methods. SPPA vice-president Edward Ong said the survey results “reflect the failure of contraception education in Singapore. “The withdrawal method is not a contraception method at all. In fact, it is a situation where things are out of control," he said. The survey, which was completed by 1,790 respondents in 2010, showed that the percentage of Singaporeans who said they used the withdrawal method doubled from 10.5 percent in 1999 to 21.3 percent in 2010. However, there were some positive signs in the study, which reported that condoms were still the top contraceptive measure for couples. In the 1999 and 2010 surveys, 23.5 percent and 41 percent of respondents, respectively, said that they had used condoms.
