Sex education in UK schools ‘not good enough’

Around one in seven – 13 per cent of teenagers – said they learned most about sex at school, according to a poll by Brook, the sexual healthy charity for young people. More than a third – 36 per cent – said they got most of their information about sex from friends, with 13 per cent saying they learned about the subject from magazines, books, music lyrics and videos or TV.

Just under one in 10 said they received information from their parents and around five per cent said they learned about sex online from pornography.

The poll asked more than 2,000 14- to 18-year-olds for their views on school sex and relationships education (SRE).

Almost half (47 per cent) agreed that SRE in their school did not cover what they really wanted to know about sex. Just over a quarter – 26 per cent – claimed that SRE at their school was “non-existent”.

Jules Hillier, Brook deputy chief executive, said: “Young people in Britain deserve honest, useful information about sex and relationships but SRE in UK schools is failing them.”