Sex education in Cambodian schools

This is where our community discusses almost anything! While we're mainly a Cambodia expat discussion forum and talk about expat life here, we debate about almost everything. Even if you're a tourist passing through Southeast Asia and want to connect with expatriates living and working in Cambodia, this is the first section of our site that you should check out. Our members start their own discussions or post links to other blogs and/or news articles they find interesting and want to chat about. So join in the fun and start new topics, or feel free to comment on anything our community members have already started! We also have some Khmer members here as well, but English is the main language used on CEO. You're welcome to have a look around, and if you decide you want to participate, you can become a part our international expat community by signing up for a free account.
User avatar
xandreu
Expatriate
Posts: 1858
Joined: Mon Jun 05, 2017 11:37 am
Reputation: 1930
Great Britain

Sex education in Cambodian schools

Post by xandreu »

I bumped into a teacher friend earlier who looked horrified. When I asked him what was wrong, he told me he'd just been given his course syllabus for next term.

He teaches several subjects, I'm not sure of the grade, I think they're about 11-12 year old, but one of subjects he teaches is science, and he showed me the science book he'd been given to teach from. A large part of it consists of reproduction. I didn't look at it too much, I wish I had, but the bits I did browse were about about mammal reproduction. I'm not sure if it went into human reproduction or not. I was laughing too much at his reaction to having to teach it and ended up putting the book down.

I have to admit, I'd be extremely uncomfortable teaching that sort of thing. I'm surprised it's even in the school curriculum. I don't know why, maybe I've massively misjudged Cambodia, but I'd have assumed that Cambodia, being quite a conservative country, would leave these things to be taught at home by the parents?

Does anyone know, just out of curiosity, if sex education is commonly taught in schools here, or do you think it's more a case of his school simply picking a science book at random for the students to learn from without actually bothering to look inside at what it contains?
The difference between animals and humans is that animals would never allow the dumb ones to lead the pack.
User avatar
Phnom Poon
Expatriate
Posts: 1795
Joined: Wed Jan 16, 2019 5:44 pm
Reputation: 892
Kiribati

Re: Sex education in Cambodian schools

Post by Phnom Poon »

sex "education" is an embarrassment worldwide
but they'll get nothing at all at home

.

monstra mihi bona!
User avatar
Kung-fu Hillbilly
Expatriate
Posts: 4152
Joined: Sat May 17, 2014 11:26 am
Reputation: 4963
Location: Behind you.
Australia

Re: Sex education in Cambodian schools

Post by Kung-fu Hillbilly »

Sex education in school at this time is even more crucial than ever, not because there is a paucity of information about sex, but rather there is a serious imbalance in the information that teenagers selectively assimilate for the development of their sexual consciousness. There is a need to guide and educate them about sex to ensure that they practice safe sex and act responsibly if they happen to indulge in it.
https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50598353/d ... n-schools/
cambodian-culture-and-language/sex-educ ... 28584.html
User avatar
violet
Expatriate
Posts: 2452
Joined: Fri May 23, 2014 3:48 pm
Reputation: 1321

Re: Sex education in Cambodian schools

Post by violet »

^ yes, but what is the attitude of parents and grandparents towards this type of education in schools? Do parents know about it? If they do/did know about it, would they support it or be against it (on the whole)?
Despite what angsta states, it’s clear from reading through his posts that angsta supports the free FreePalestine movement.
User avatar
John Bingham
Expatriate
Posts: 13673
Joined: Sun Dec 07, 2014 11:26 pm
Reputation: 8892
Cambodia

Re: Sex education in Cambodian schools

Post by John Bingham »

Well it's pretty much irrelevant in this day and age, as pretty much everyone young or old can access educational videos on the interwebzs. Kids can get a good idea of how things work by checking out titles like "Weapons of Ass Destruction" and "Dykes Of Hazzard". :?
Silence, exile, and cunning.
User avatar
Kung-fu Hillbilly
Expatriate
Posts: 4152
Joined: Sat May 17, 2014 11:26 am
Reputation: 4963
Location: Behind you.
Australia

Re: Sex education in Cambodian schools

Post by Kung-fu Hillbilly »

violet wrote: Fri Nov 29, 2019 7:49 pm ^ yes, but what is the attitude of parents and grandparents towards this type of education in schools? Do parents know about it? If they do/did know about it, would they support it or be against it (on the whole)?
There's a part of the country that for a long time have maintained "love huts" for young people to have intimacy and privacy in their courtships when they're old enough - as young as thirteen, I believe. For parents or grandparents in this area that have love huts I'd imagine they'd be quite comfortable with the idea of their children receiving sex education, and perhaps welcome it. (An interesting article I posted some time ago on CEO explains these huts. I'll post one link below.)

On the whole however, I think the societal value or importance placed on a girl maintaining her virginity is such that sex education would be seen by most parents as a catalyst to their daughter's corruption.

For anyone who hasn't read the love huts articles, there's one from Vice here.

Image
Kajeanh Mom, 20, shows one of the maiden huts still standing in Khoun village, Ratanakkiri. Photo by Eduard Merigo.

by Aisha Down
10 December 2018


The Struggle to Save Teen 'Love Huts' in Cambodia
n the days of Cha Bai's youth, the Kreung people did things differently. Every girl who came of age left her parents' house to sleep in a small, low hut nearby. Kreung people call the huts the "maiden huts," or "houses of the young women." They've been building them for as long as anyone can remember, long before the decades when Khmer people came to settle the far reaches of Ratanakkiri.
They build them to allow young people to experience courtship on their own terms, says Cha Bai. "We were shy of our mothers and fathers! They knew young men were coming over to sleep with us!"
Sometimes the affair—"sleeping together"—would last a few nights, says Yan Vuy, the village chief of nearby Kacheung. The couple would come together, then part without blame. Sometimes, though, it would last weeks or months. That's when the parents came in.
"They'd wake in the morning and see the boy coming out of their daughter's house, and they'd know: 'Oh, that young man there is sleeping with my daughter!' Then they'd ask themselves, 'What's he like?'" says Vuy.
In the years of the maiden huts, Kreung girls could freely take boyfriends and leave them without judgement. And they kept their huts as long as they wanted to, sometimes into their late 20s
.

full https://www.vice.com/en_au/article/jpy7 ... n-cambodia
User avatar
John Bingham
Expatriate
Posts: 13673
Joined: Sun Dec 07, 2014 11:26 pm
Reputation: 8892
Cambodia

Re: Sex education in Cambodian schools

Post by John Bingham »

It's a dying practice among a rapidly Khmerizing tribe. It's interesting but often gets misreported or misinterpreted internationally as "Cambodians allow their kids to have love huts" etc. It was only done within a small group of the "Kreung" tribe.
Silence, exile, and cunning.
DaveG
Expatriate
Posts: 1543
Joined: Wed May 23, 2018 2:45 am
Reputation: 1164
Cambodia

Re: Sex education in Cambodian schools

Post by DaveG »

Image


OMG :shock: :shock: you would be alright with these two in there !!!!!!, the legs would need to be concreted into the ground. :shock:

Image
User avatar
Phnom Poon
Expatriate
Posts: 1795
Joined: Wed Jan 16, 2019 5:44 pm
Reputation: 892
Kiribati

Re: Sex education in Cambodian schools

Post by Phnom Poon »

John Bingham wrote: Fri Nov 29, 2019 9:01 pm It's a dying practice among a rapidly Khmerizing tribe. It's interesting but often gets misreported or misinterpreted internationally as "Cambodians allow their kids to have love huts" etc. It was only done within a small group of the "Kreung" tribe.
more interesting than marginalization would be what is the cultural thinking behind the practice?

.

monstra mihi bona!
DaveG
Expatriate
Posts: 1543
Joined: Wed May 23, 2018 2:45 am
Reputation: 1164
Cambodia

Re: Sex education in Cambodian schools

Post by DaveG »

Nothing like this I take it !!!!!!,
Post Reply Previous topicNext topic
  • Similar Topics
    Replies
    Views
    Last post

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Ahrefs [Bot], Bing [Bot], Google [Bot], Khmu Nation, Semrush [Bot] and 1192 guests