While most parents are still very hush-hush about sex, some 12-year-olds openly discuss methods of contraception.
To foster intelligent sex education, the Family Planning Association of Hong Kong (FPA) launched its first Inter-Secondary School Sexuality Education Debate and Inter-Primary School Sexuality Education Quiz.
Responding to frank questions about sex, the boys' and girls' answers were straightforward and delivered without embarrassment.
'Our school library doesn't have books on the subject so we borrow them from the FPA. We don't learn much about sex in school because teachers are reluctant to tell us about things like sexually transmitted diseases and circumcision,' said Ng Chui-ting, 12, a member of the winning Buddhist Chan Shi Wan Primary School team.
According to Chui-ting, despite learning about adolescence in health class last year, sex is still a taboo subject in school.
Chui-ting's teammate, Chan Lok-yee, 11, said: 'Boys are so naive. Whenever we talk about sex with them, they just giggle and go away. They even think menstruation is about being pregnant.' She suggested that sex education should be taught to boys and girls together, instead of dividing the class by gender.
