Saitama Prefecture

• In light of a push by the national Government to put more effort into sex education, in 2005 Saitama Prefecture launched the “Committee to Promote Sex Education Practice in Saitama Prefecture” (later renamed in 2017 as “Committee to Resolve Sex Education Issue in Saitama Prefecture”) (hereafter, the “Committee”). Current committee members include professors from the Faculty of Education at Saitama University (chairpersons), the principal of a local school (Vice Chairperson), three teachers each from a local elementary school, a local junior high school, and a local high school (one school nurse and two teachers of health and physical education), and administrative staff members from local governments.
• The Committee works to propose lesson plans for sex education based on discussions with schools about their needs. The Committee conducts research on lessons, and Committee members test out lessons at their own schools. The Committee also holds workshops for teachers.

• Based on the ideal that all students have the right to learn correct information about sex, the Committee focuses its efforts on teachers.
• The Committee keeps track of a network of Health Departments, etc. that schools can call upon if they want to have them come into classes to complement lessons based on the Courses of Study set out by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT).

■ Workshops for teachers who conduct sex education

■ The School Health Education Handbook

• Extensive teaching materials
  • Saitama Prefecture creates teaching materials like the School Health Education Handbook every year, which presents a clear vision on health education and case examples. Saitama Prefecture made the decision to publish the Handbook on its website because there were many inquiries about it from the governments of other prefectures. (Comment from Prefectural Government)
• Collaborations with other stakeholders
  • There is a close partnership with Health Departments. For example, a booklet published by the Wellness and Longevity Division was introduced at the Workshop one year when the theme was infertility, and utilized in a model lesson at a high school. (Comment from Prefectural Government)
  • Because a school nurse sits on the board of directors of Saitama Society of Maternal Health, its academic conferences always set aside time for presentations on health education. This is a valuable opportunity to communicate the actual situations at schools to academia. (Comment from Lecturer)

• Medium- to long-term evaluation of activities
  • How should the impact of these initiatives on not only teachers, but also students, be evaluated? How should the mid- to long-term impacts be evaluated? (Comment from Prefectural Government)
• Overflow of information on sexual health
  • Recently, information can be easily available through the internet, but not all of the information is correct. Some students follow this information without questioning it and act inappropriately. (Comment from a Lecturer)

• Continuation of activities
  • The Prefectural government will try to secure an independent budget to continue the initiative. (Comment from Prefectural Government)
• Strengthening external lecturer dispatch support
  • Connections have been made with medical associations, associations of dentists, pharmacist associations, and midwife associations in Saitama Prefecture, but organized collaborations are not taking place. The Prefectural government hopes to create a system that will allow schools to find external lecturers easily, such as by creating a list of lecturer candidates. (Comment from Prefectural Government)

• The National Government
  • The national Government should continue to send the message that “sex education is important.” (Comment from Prefectural Government)
  • The national Government should strengthen training for health education teachers, for example, by increasing the number of credits required at training institutions, including universities, so they can give appropriate guidance at schools. (Comment from Lecturer)
  • The national Government should make it easier to find reliable data that can be utilized in classrooms, such as nationwide survey results. (Comment from Lecturer)
• To Health and Physical Education Teachers
  • Teachers should first correctly grasp the purpose and content of each lesson before teaching classes. (Comment from Lecturer)