School Sex Lessons

The sex education I had at school was sadly lacking in everything apart from the very basics of reproduction,  we were told what went where and how and basically that was that.   Very little time was spent on relationships, on emotions, indeed more time was spent shusshing the boys from sniggering at the back and the girls from giggling at the front.

OK,  so that was a long time ago,  but things have slowly got better but to be honest isn’t really having much of an effect.  The UK has one of Europe’s biggest rates of teen pregnancy and according to  recent surveys as many as 7 in 10  under 16 year old’s have had  sexual intercourse!

My experience  of the school sex lessons was also marred by the fact that there was no mention of homosexuality at all,  so  my early sexual experiences were, shall we say unsafe and illegal. Back then the age of consent here in the UK for gay men was 21.  Thankfully it’s now been reduced to a more equal 16, and sex lessons in our countries secondary schools includes info on safer sex – you know, condoms and that.

However,  they are all set to get a whole lot better and far more inclusive for gay kids up and down the country -  unless of course they’re in a religious or  faith based school!   A government review has rules that sex education in schools,  from 2011 will be taught  as part of the personal, social, health and education curriculum,      This means that children will learn about sex in the broader context of relationships, homosexuality, marriage, civil partnerships, divorce and abortion, rather than simply as the biological facts of puberty and reproduction.

Plus,  it’s going to be compulsory,   previously parents have been able to withdraw their child from such lessons in previous times,  however the UK’s high rate of underage sex, teen pregnancies and STI’s in under 16’s  means the new sex lessons must be taken,  a move welcomed by most experts, groups and charities dealing with the fall out of early sexual experience in our young.

Of course,  guidelines for the new sex lessons do have a get out for those hard headed religious groups,  schools will be allowed to teach the subject “in line with the context, values and ethos of the school”. More than a quarter of all schools in the UK are faith schools and we all know what the Catholics really think of safe sex, birth control and homosexuality.  Which could mean a great deal of children who will,  potentially be denied a  full education in this respect,  but it’s a lot more than they would have had prior to this review.

I really do know if this new review is going to help  slow down the rate of teenage pregnancies that dog the UK’s young,  or halt the rise in HIV infections in the 16 to 21 year age range,  we can hope it will and it’s a step up from the present education which is pretty sketchy, and varies from school to school.   This new review will also   ensure that gay young people will have access to proper sexual education, advice and support,  something that’s been sadly lacking until now.

More from Jason Shaw at: The Seafront Diaries!