Sex Education Is Failing Teen Mothers

The UK has the highest teenage pregnancy rate in western Europe. While we can’t blame teachers for what goes on outside the classroom, anything they can do to improve these young people’s sexual knowledge would be helpful.

So what can teachers and schools do to help?

Have integrated, comprehensive, age-appropriate sex education starting from kindergarten of course!

But there are, of course, lots of obstacles.

Ofsted, an organization that inspects school standards, just released a report saying that in 25% of schools sex education is not good enough.

Yes, that does mean that in 75% of schools the standards are high and the young people are doing well, and we should applaud this success.

But it’s the other 25% that pose problems. Young women in those schools get pregnant at a young age, are unable to care for themselves and their children, and often end up living on welfare.

It’s no surprise that the Department of Education recently found 20% of sexually active 18-year-old girls have been pregnant at least once.  There was a strong link between girls getting pregnant and their parents’ jobs and levels of education.

We need to help these young girls so they can succeed in life, finish school, and get good jobs. Help them to be in a place where they can choose to have children and successfully support them.

Part of the problem is that teachers are embarrassed and don’t know how to teach the classes and so the young people miss out on valuable lessons. They are able to teach the basics of biology, but when it comes to negotiating sex in relationships and dealing with peer pressure teachers are at a loss.

And without the ability to negotiate and navigate peer pressure and condom use, not to mention the binge drinking that goes on, the biological lessons will be useless.

Teaching colleges need to have lessons so that teachers are able to run these lessons properly. Sex education curriculums need to be compulsory from kindergarten.

These things have all been said before but obviously they need to be said again.

Let’s hope this report prompts some of the law makers to push for compulsory sex education in schools. It’s never too late to help improve the lives of these young families. 

Please read:

Will British Kids Ever Get Sex Ed?