In the wake of an articulate and perfectly valid feedback from student Agatha Tan regarding an outdated, primordial sex education curriculum, her school Hwa Chong Institution (HCI) has decided to handle such content themselves by designing their own workshops in the future.
TODAY reports that HCI principal Hon Chiew Weng issued a letter to students and teachers yesterday, declaring that the school has concluded that the facilitators conducting the workshop in question have been ineffective in addressing the concerns of their participants.
The workshop in particular was conducted by Focus on the Family Singapore, and was appointed externally by the Ministry for Social and Family Development (MSF). Tan took her issues with the course to Facebook in an open letter to the principal, lashing out at its accompanying booklet which strikes as sexist and enforcing outdated, inaccurate gender roles. Her post went viral on social media.
Investigations weeded out one facilitator in particular who was unable to satisfactorily address the student’s concerns when they objected to the viewpoints raised during a discussion. Other HCI students who attended similar workshops with different facilitators gave positive feedback on the course, as they were open to alternative explanations and perspectives when discussing controversial issues.
A Ministry of Education spokesperson has clarified that the workshop in question — started in 2009 to teach students about social and relationship management skills — will end its run by the end of 2014.
“One lesson we can learn from this episode is that even if a programme is approved by both the MSF and Ministry of Education (MOE), things can go wrong.” Dr Hon writes. “We have to depend on ourselves to ensure the quality of our programmes”.
Photo: Agatha Tan Facebook page
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In the wake of an articulate and perfectly valid feedback from student Agatha Tan regarding an outdated, primordial sex education curriculum, her school Hwa Chong Institution (HCI) has decided to handle such content themselves by designing their own workshops in the future.
TODAY reports that HCI principal Hon Chiew Weng issued a letter to students and teachers yesterday, declaring that the school has concluded that the facilitators conducting the workshop in question have been ineffective in addressing the concerns of their participants.
The workshop in particular was conducted by Focus on the Family Singapore, and was appointed externally by the Ministry for Social and Family Development (MSF). Tan took her issues with the course to Facebook in an open letter to the principal, lashing out at its accompanying booklet which strikes as sexist and enforcing outdated, inaccurate gender roles. Her post went viral on social media.
Investigations weeded out one facilitator in particular who was unable to satisfactorily address the student’s concerns when they objected to the viewpoints raised during a discussion. Other HCI students who attended similar workshops with different facilitators gave positive feedback on the course, as they were open to alternative explanations and perspectives when discussing controversial issues.
A Ministry of Education spokesperson has clarified that the workshop in question — started in 2009 to teach students about social and relationship management skills — will end its run by the end of 2014.
“One lesson we can learn from this episode is that even if a programme is approved by both the MSF and Ministry of Education (MOE), things can go wrong.” Dr Hon writes. “We have to depend on ourselves to ensure the quality of our programmes”.
Photo: Agatha Tan Facebook page
Read Also:
MOE responds to viral complaint: sex ed course will cease in December
JC student calls bullshit on sex education course