By Veena Bharwani

BRENDA is a straight-A student from the Express stream. She is confident and bright.

Sarah, from the Normal stream, fails most of her subjects. She is shy and suffers from poor self-esteem.

But they have one thing in common.

Both started having sex very early - and they are clueless about the dangers.

Both did not use protection and were equally clueless on the multiple risks involved in having unsafe sex.

Brenda only used protection sometimes to 'see how it feels', while Sarah had no idea she could become pregnant or catch an infection by having unprotected sex.

These are just two examples of how adventurous our students are becoming.

A check with three school counsellors and five teachers revealed that teenagers are not only having sex earlier but, more alarmingly, they are not practising safe sex.

And it does not seem to matter if they are in the Express or Normal streams - many of those who are sexually active are clueless about safe sex.

One reason given by educators and counsellors: Lack of a comprehensive and structured sex education programme in school.

The current programme called Breaking Down Barriers (BDB) is mass-based and taught to all Secondary 3 students.

It does not have a dedicated timeslot. Instead, various aspects of the subject are built into lessons on health education, science, and civic and moral education.

This is due to change soon with the introduction of a customised comprehensive health prevention and sex education programme by the Education Ministry (MOE) and the Health Promotion Board (HPB).

Teachers and educators say this may be the first time such a programme is being rolled out with an education-linked criteria.

Expected to be launched in November, it aims to raise awareness among students on STIs, among other things.

According to details on the tender posted on GeBiz website, the HPB stated that it 'would now like to customise the class-based component for students in 'Normal Academic' and 'Normal-Technical' streams.'

However, when asked why the programme catered only to Normal students, HPB and MOE said they recognise that Express students should not be excluded.

Their joint spokesman said the risks of STIs/HIV arise from unsafe sexual practices, and education on preventive measures should be taught to all students.

The spokesman said: 'As for the class-based programme, it was decided that different learning activities would be adopted (for the different streams. HPB hence tendered for the class-based programme to incorporate different types of learning activities.'

The two authorities said the BDB programme would also be revised to cater to all students.

Educators and counsellors contacted by The New Paper welcomed the new programme but added that it should have been rolled out much earlier - as students are getting more daring.

And they all felt that it should be for both streams, not just Normal.

A vice-principal, who declined to be named, said: 'There is a gap in what students are doing these days, and what education is available to them about the subjects.

'Most students don't talk to their parents about this. So they tend to rely on half-baked information from friends or the Internet.

'Children these days are very different from the students of 10 or 20 years ago.'

He said the new customised programme was a big step forward to educate students.

Another teacher, who wanted to be known only as Ms Tan, 28, said any new programme has to include a component where children are taught how to respect each other.

Giving an anecdote, she said: 'I counselled one 16-year-old Express student last year who got pregnant.

'She said when she told her boyfriend, his response was, 'It really doesn't matter, we can continue to have sex now as you can't get pregnant a second time'.'

However, an educator, who is a head of department, said teachers face a dilemma when teaching students about sex.

'Only a small group of students are sexually active, so we don't want to talk about it all the time.

'And when some of them come to us and want counselling, as they are confused, it's hard to tell them, 'Please use protection', as they would then think their teachers think it's okay for them to have sex.

'We are still a conservative society and we don't want to advocate too strongly that it's okay for them to have sex, even if we want to pass the message that they should be careful.'

Some educators said that the different types of learning activities stress that the two streams need differentiated instruction.

St Andrew's Secondary principal Belinda Charles said: 'I think the intention was not to imply that one particular group is more immoral. The MOE and HPB are just practising what we do all the time in schools, which is differentiated instruction.'

Parents also welcomed the change but hoped that it would cover students of both streams.

Madam Nirmala Raghani, 55, who has two daughters, 21 and 16, said: 'My daughters, who both went to the Express stream, learnt a bit about safe sex in school, but I still think that wasn't enough.

Detailed programmes

'Children - regardless of whether they are in Normal or Express streams - are exposed to so much these days. It is important that they have more detailed sexual awareness programmes. They need to know what they are getting into.'

Counsellors also feel the programme should not be limited to Normal students.

Ms Sheena Jebal, the chief executive and founder of NuLife Care and Counselling, who has been counselling Sarah and Brenda, said more Normal stream students see her for advice on sex, but there is a growing number of Express students who are misinformed as well.

She said: 'In the past year, we've counselled 50 secondary school kids on safe sex. The ratio of Express kids to Normal kids is 1 to 5.'

She felt Express students are 'definitely smarter - they know that they should do it when parents are not home, they know that the woman is not fertile every day of the month.

'Express students are cockier and confident, but they are clueless as well. They should not be left out.'

This article was first published in The New Paper on Aug 25, 2008.