AN EXPLORATORY STUDY ON SECONDARY TWO STUDENTS' VIEWS TOWARD HUMAN SEXUALITY EDUCATION IN SINGAPORE

Abstract

This study investigates the views of Secondary Two students toward the provision of human sexuality education in Singapore. First, this study aimed to find out, from the students' viewpoint, whether there is a difference between the human sexuality education conducted by schoolteacher(s) and those conducted by social worker(s)/counsellor(s). Second, the students' general view on human sexuality education. Likert­ type scales were developed to measure the content of human sexuality education, the level of adequacy of knowledge (pertaining to human sexuality issue) of the provider(s) and the relevance of human sexuality education with respect to students' daily life. Students were also asked to state their general views on human sexuality education in terms of who they think should be responsible for providing human sexuality education, who would they prefer when seeking information on h human sexuality issues and lastly, the effects of human sexuality education on themselves. Findings show that there is a significant different between the human sexuality education conducted by schoolteacher(s) and social worker(s)/counsellor(s) in terms of content, the level of knowledge of the provider(s) and the relevance of human sexuality education with respect to the students' daily life. The implications of the findings were discussed and suggestion is made for social workers to be the provider of human sexuality education.