20/4/2007

Letters

Improved sex education must be a priority

I was very impressed with the Comment column in the News, April 13, and I agree wholeheartedly with it. The statistics on teenage pregnancy rates make for alarming reading. Society has decided teenagers are not able to make that informed choice before they are 16 — but there is enormous pressure from the media, other teens and boyfriends to have sex. Yet, despite this, one in three girls and one in four boys don’t know that they can get free contraception from their GP, the Family Planning Association (FPA) or www.brook.org.uk

Children should be taught about sex from a relatively young age.

Personally, I would like to see more parents making an effort with sex education but I realise that with the many pressures that are on parents nowadays they are not able to do so. Perhaps parents would be more comfortable speaking about loving relationships and leave the more “mechanical” side to schools.

I know some parents are not keen for their children to receive sex education through school, as they have been taught about sex within a different moral framework. I would say that if school tells the child about sex in a way that the parent is not happy with, at least credit the teenagers with enough judgement to make their own decisions.

Making frank and, if necessary, explicit information available in schools as part of an ongoing commitment to sex education must be a priority, as many children seem to receive bad or downright wrong information from schoolmates and friends. There will be some embarrassment on all sides to begin with, but we owe it to our children so they can make the best choices in life that they can.

Martin Coule
Labour candidate, Fernhill Ward
Pinewood Park
Farnborough

First printed in: Aldershot News and Mail