Children 'should be given open and honest teaching'

By the age of nine, children were picking up information about sex from a variety of sources, Professors Mark Halstead and Michael Reiss found.

They said it was important that schools taught them "values" as well as biological facts.

Otherwise, they would get much of their information from the media, each other and the "hidden curriculum".

Their book, Values In Sex Education: From Principles To Practice, asks schools to be open and honest about the subject.

'Respect'

The UK has the second highest teenage pregnancy rate in the industrialised world, behind only the US, said Prof Reiss of the Institute of Education, University of London, and Prof Halstead, of Plymouth University.

Schools could help to reduce teenage pregnancies by encouraging their pupils to talk about relationships, not just explain how to use contraceptives.

Despite the uncertainties caused by Section 28, the legislation forbidding the promotion of homosexuality by local authorities, it should also be explained by teachers who were specially trained and willing to do so, they said.

Prof Reiss, who is also a Church of England priest, said it should be taught "partly out of respect for those pupils who are gay and partly to prepare all pupils for today's world, in which sexual orientation issues are never out of the news".

But homosexuality should be taught specifically as a controversial subject, meaning one about which there was no widespread agreement in society at large, they said.

"The biggest problem facing sex educators today is the sheer diversity of sexual values that exist in our society," they said.

However, teaching children about values such as love, fairness, equality, freedom, justice, happiness and truth would help both boys and girls.

"Boys need help to develop a positive self-image based not on macho posturing but on a sense of having an important and responsible role to play within the family and the broader society.