Think-tank calls for primary school education

Children should be taught about contraception in their last year of primary school, according to a think-tank.

The Institute for Public Policy Research said that new research, due to be published next month, showed that British teenagers were the most sexually active in Europe and the third least likely to use a condom during underage sex.

According to the report, Britain has the highest rate of births to teenagers in Europe, with an average of 26 live births per 1,000 women aged 15 to 19. This is nearly a fifth higher than Latvia and more than four times the rate of Cyprus, Slovenia, Sweden and Denmark.

The IPPR said that although the government had a target to halve teenage pregnancy rates between 1999 and 2010, progress remained "frustratingly slow."

Figures showed that there were 41.4 conceptions per thousand women under the age of 18 in 2005 - just 2.9 per thousand lower than in 1991.

The report also found that almost one in three 15-year-olds in Britain did not use a condom when they last had sex, while cases of sexually transmitted diseases were increasing amongst teenagers.

The report found that, in the last ten years, levels of genital chlamydia increased by 508% in male teenagers and 238% in female teenagers. Levels of genital herpes also increased by 52% in male teens and 38% in female teens in within the same period, while cases of syphilis also increased significantly.

Currently, all schools in England and Wales have to teach sex education to pupils aged between 11 and 14 as part of the science curriculum, although schools can also choose to teach it as part of Personal, Social and Health Education.

The IPPR said that sex and relationship education should become a statutory subject in all primary and secondary schools in England and Wales.

The think-tank also called on teenagers to be offered a full choice of contraception, including long-lasting forms, such as the Norplant implant, which lasts for three years.

The report also suggested that condoms should also be made widely available at low cost, or no cost, in places such as sports facilities, schools and further education colleges.

It also called for teenage mothers and teenagers who have had abortions to have improved access to support and information in order to tackle the number of teenagers experiencing second pregnancies.

Julia Margo, IPPR senior research fellow, said: "Over the last 50 years, the average age of first sexual intercourse has fallen from 20 for men and 21 for women in the 1950s to 16 by the mid-1990s.

"The proportion of young people who are sexually active before the age of consent has risen from less than one per cent to 25% over the same period.

"Our education system must respond in kind and start teaching children about the risks involved in sex before they even consider taking those risks."

A spokesperson for the Department for Education said: "We are taking steps to improve the support we give to parents to talk about sex and relationships, and we have made clear that local authorities and primary care trusts must make sure that they are providing young people with access to advice and contraception."

(KMcA/EF)