On Friday, I had my last day at the office in Phan Thiet. It was not only my final day there, but also my first time wearing the traditional ao dai. During an English lesson earlier that week, when we talked about clothes, we came up with the idea to start my last day with an English class at the beach, all dressed in ao dai. One of the staff members kindly lent me an ao dai, which I thought is absolutely beautiful.
At the beach, we had breakfast, coffee, and took many pictures together.
In addition to that, we talked about an important topic: sex education.
The Thien Chi Center provides training for teachers on sex education, with the aim that they pass this knowledge on to their students in class. In Vietnam, sex education has long been a sensitive topic and was not widely addressed in schools. Only in recent years has it gradually become more accepted. Since 2023, guidelines have been included in the national education strategy, although they are still not implemented consistently.
Especially in rural areas and among ethnic minority communities, access to sex education remains limited. This contributes to challenges such as early pregnancies, abortions, and sexually transmitted infections. Vietnam is considered to have one of the highest abortion rates in the world, which is often linked to limited knowledge about reproductive health and contraception.
Many teachers feel uncomfortable teaching this topic. On the one hand, they often lack experience and sufficient training, as it is still relatively new in the curriculum. On the other hand, traditional values can make it difficult to openly discuss sexuality, especially since premarital sex is still widely discouraged, particularly for women.
For this reason, the Thien Chi Center visits selected schools and supports teachers in preparing and delivering sex education lessons.