Australia’s leading sexual and reproductive healthcare organisation today called on governments around the country to introduce mandatory sex education in schools nationally.
Marie Stopes International’s call comes following the UK’s decision to make sex and relationships education a compulsory part of the national curriculum.
“To best support our teens, a solid sex education is vital, yet in Australia we simply aren’t seeing this happening in every school,” said Jill Michelson from Marie Stopes International.
“The UK has recently developed a clear sex and relationships education framework and is standardizing sex education across schools.
“These actions will no doubt ensure that UK teens receive their entitlement to accurate education about relationships and sex – don’t Australian teens deserve the same?”
Marie Stopes International recently conducted research which found that, of teens who are sexually active, a third had their first experience at age 14 years or younger, yet almost one in ten say they have not been taught sex ed at school.
Other key findings in the report SEX – telling it like it is: a parent and teen insight include:
· Although 61% of teens rate their knowledge of sexual health issues as good/excellent:
- nearly half (45%) were not aware that they could be infected with Chlamydia but have no symptoms;
- 3 in 10 (30%) teens were unaware whether they could contract sexually transmitted infections (STIs) from oral sex; and
- over half (52%) think that by using a condom, they won’t contract herpes.
· Many parents (56%) and teens (69%) feel that sex education at the teen’s school is of average or lower quality.
· Less than half of teens who have received sex education at school claim to have been taught topics such as sexual decision making (51%), emotional aspects of sex (39%) and non-consensual sex (43%).
· 66% of teens and 75% of parents support mandatory sex education in schools.
“These findings suggest significant room for improvement in STI knowledge levels generally amongst teens and a need for stronger sex education and support programs in schools and the community for both teenagers and their parents,” said Ms. Michelson.
“Last year there were over 58,000 notifications of Chlamydia nationwide and, of those notifications, over 1 in 4 (15,000) were recorded for males and females aged 19 or under.
“STIs and teenage pregnancy are key health issues that affect many Australian teens and it is time that they received the support and level of sex education they deserve to deal with them."
