Students often find school sex education negative and out of touch

Some young people criticized the overly scientific approach to sex, presenting sex as a problem to be solved rather than acknowledging pleasure and desire.

SEXUAL AND RELATIONSHIP Education (SRE) in schools needs to be overhauled in many countries including Ireland, new research has found.

Many students say the sex and relationship education in their schools can be negative and "heterosexist", and the way teachers approach the subject is ineffective, according to a review of global research.

The research team examined 48 qualitative studies carried about between 1990 and 2015 on young people's views of their school-based SRE from Ireland, the United Kingdom, the US, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Japan, Iran, Brazil and Sweden.

Focusing on the views of young people, it found SRE often portrayed sex in a negative way and that there was too much focus on abstinence.

The researchers synthesised the feedback and found that despite the wide geographical reach of the studies, young people's views were remarkably consistent.

Pointing out that current government guidance on sex and relationships education (SRE) was last updated 16 years ago, the report states that "The government should immediately update its guidance on SRE to include teaching about pornography".

But one of the worsts part of sex ed for students was that it was too often delivered by their teachers. Sex was often spoken about as a "problem to be managed", the study found.

Schools are delivering poor quality sex education, with some struggling to accept that young people are sexually active, experts have said. There was little practical information: telling students about community health services, for example, what to do if they got pregnant or the pros and cons of different kinds of birth control.

Dr Cicely Marston, associate professor in social science at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: "Good communication about sex is essential to ensure that young people are able to avoid sexual exploitation, to engage in satisfying sexual or non-sexual relationships with others, and develop sexually at the right pace for them".

"Young people's aspirations for SRE appear to align with a "sex-positive" approach that aims for young people to enjoy their sexuality in a way that is safe, consensual and healthy", wrote the authors.

"In addition, schools need to acknowledge that SRE is a special subject with unique challenges, as well as the fact and range of young people's sexual activity".

Students from Ireland were surveyed along with nine other countries as part of the study, and most reported felt vulnerable and embarrassed in classes dealing with sex and relationships.

Numerous students, most of whom were aged between 12 and 18, disliked how the classes took a scientific approach to sex, the "unrealistic" focus on abstinence, and negative portrayals of teen pregnancy.