Sex education proposed for five year olds

Friday, 11 July 2003 12:00 AM

A Government advisory body has recommended that sex education should be compulsory for children as young as five in an attempt to reduce the under 18 conception rate.

The annual report of the Independent Advisory Group on Teenage Pregnancy has warned ministers that sex and relationship education in primary schools is not preparing children for the earlier onset of puberty. They have also called for a nationwide advertising campaign to reassure children under 16 that their parents will not automatically be told if they seek contraceptive advice.

The group attributed a 10% reduction in teenage pregnancy rates to 43.2 per 1,000 girls since 1998 to better sex education in secondary schools, but wanted personal, health and social education (PHSE) to be extended to primary schools so that it is statutory in the curriculum at all key stages.

The group's deputy chairman Gill Frances, of the National Children's Bureau, explained that the report is not calling for formal lessons about sex for five year olds, but that it should 'be brought up on the course of conversation'.

'If you establish this ability to talk about these things in the very early years, then when the time comes for more detailed discussions about sex later on, the children have a hook on which to hang the new information,' she said.

The Minister for Children Margaret Hodge welcomed the report saying that the key to success in reducing the level of teenage pregnancy involves education, health, social services, the media, parents and young people themselves.

Yesterday an attempt by the Conservatives to grant parents legal rights over the content of their children's sex education was defeated in the House of Lords.

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