Mandatory Sex Ed in Schools?

The Family Planning Association held a fringe meeting yesterday at the Labour Party conference in Manchester.

Back in 2004, Independent Advisory Group on Teenage Pregnancy called for all schools to be required teach their pupils about sex and relationships.

Anne Weyman, the FPA's chief executive, said about the fringe meeting: "High quality sex and relationships education should be the norm, but too many young people are still missing out. At the fringe we will be scrutinising the current programme of SRE and asking how it can be improved."

Back in May 2006, the Trust for the Study of Adolescence released a study with some disturbing figures:

The trust's report, carried out for the Naz sexual health project in west London, reveals for the first time how sexual attitudes and experiences vary between ethnic groups. While 80 per cent of all the teenagers surveyed were 'not sexually competent' the first time they had sex, that figure rose to 93 per cent for boys of black-Caribbean origin, for example. And 32 per cent of boys of black African origin did not use contraception when they first had sex, compared to 10 per cent of white British pupils and 18 per cent of interviewees overall.

Many of those from ethnic minority backgrounds knew little about about how to prevent and identify the symptoms of STIs, and black Caribbean young men were more likely than others to have risky sex.

Bryan Teixeira, chief executive of the Naz project, said many young people from ethnic minority backgrounds ended up confused about sex because, while their parents often have traditional views, sex was discussed openly at school. Boys and young men were a particular problem, said Teixeira, as they were more likely to indulge in risky sexual behaviour and to have more partners than girls.

Sex education provision varies widely across the country. I think that it is essential that young people have the skills and knowledge to negotiate relationships in the real world, alongside accessible and non-judgemental services. There'd be fewer teenage pregnancies, fewer sexually transmitted infections and less infertility caused by people leaving an STI untreated.