#MeToo and Vera Lui show why Hong Kong needs better sex education classes

Paul Stapleton says it is time Hong Kong emerged from the extreme conservatism over sex education in schools, and in society as a whole, which makes even celebrities like Vera Lui wait years before being able to talk about sexual assault

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Any change in how sex education is taught in Hong Kong has to be approached carefully, and implementing this as a comprehensive policy would take a concerted effort on the part of education authorities as well as parents. Photo: David Wong

Published: 9:43am, 13 Dec 2017Updated: 6:49pm, 13 Dec 2017

The #MeToo campaign took a while to reach Hong Kong, but with hurdler Vera Lui Lai-yiu’s Facebook post about being assaulted by her coach, the issue is now out in the open. Undoubtedly, Lui’s case is the tip of the iceberg. Although sexual harassment has become one of the daily topics in Hong Kong media, whether this will lead to a significant change in behaviour remains to be seen.

In the meantime, this open discussion of deviant sexual behaviour highlights the extremely conservative approach our local school curriculum has towards sex education, and how this relative lack of instruction about sex may have contributed to the long silence before Lui’s brave revelation.

At present, the curriculum includes a mandatory subject called moral, civic and national education, in which sex education is buried among other topics, such as human rights, anti-drug education and sustainable development. Biology classes include explanations of human reproduction, but this mostly concerns microscopic mechanisms within the body.

Simply put, the reality is that, among local schools, sex education is not mandatory and lacks systematic implementation, with a few teachers providing detailed instruction, while many more gloss over it.

#MeToo movement unearths heartbreaking reality of sexual assault in Hong Kong

As a contrast to this, I recall my own experience as a student in sex education classes over a generation ago, in 1970s Canada.