The Crisis Pregnancy Agency says more must be done to teach teenagers about sexual relationships. Theresa Judgereports
Only one-third of schools are "implementing the Relationships and Sexuality Education [ RSE] programme well", while a third implement it poorly and 10 per cent make no attempt to teach it at all, the Crisis Pregnancy Agency said yesterday.
The agency, which was unveiling a new five-year strategy, has set a target of ensuring that 100 per cent of post-primary schools teach the programme.
The strategy document states that research with young people in Ireland "consistently demonstrates that they have significant knowledge deficits with regards to sexual health".
Minister for Health Mary Harney said she would "strongly support" efforts to get more schools to teach the programme.
She added: "I believe we cannot talk to young people enough. All the evidence suggests that when young people are spoken to by a respected adult like a teacher, a counsellor or a parent, they have a much healthier attitude to sexual relations and particularly to positive options as far as sexual relationships are concerned and are much less likely to be involved in a crisis pregnancy or to get a sexually transmitted illness."
Crisis Pregnancy Agency director Caroline Spillane said the agency had developed an RSE pack for schools which would include lesson plans and a DVD.
"It's going to be very helpful to teachers in teaching certain aspects of the RSE programme particularly about relationships, contraception and sexually transmitted infection," Spillane said.
She said school principals played a crucial role in ensuring that the programme was taught and that it was given priority. "One of the key things is leadership - if you have a principal and teachers who identify it as being an important subject then you are going to have higher implementation levels," she said.
From the research the agency had conducted, there was "no pattern" as to which schools were teaching it well, she said. But it has been found that only one-third of schools teach it well, another one-third implement it moderately, and the remaining one-third implement it poorly.
Spillane said the implementation also declines as the child goes through post-primary schools. Some 30 per cent of schools do not teach it at all in third year.
She said it was important that the principal allocated resources for the subject and allow teachers to be released for training. It was also important "that the teacher continues to do it year-on-year, so that you don't have the newest teacher coming in doing it and the next year you have the next new teacher doing it," she added.
While stressing the role played by the schools, the agency is putting an equal emphasis on helping parents to provide relationships and sex education in the home. To help achieve this, a leaflet will be included in a national newspaper aimed at parents of 15-17 year-olds. It gives practical advice on how to talk to teenagers.
The chairwoman of the agency, Katharine Bulbulia, accepted that parents were "a hard-pressed" group but said they wanted to see a situation where it was "the norm for parents to take responsibility" for their children's relationships and sex education.
An information booklet and DVD aimed at parents of 11-15 year-olds called You can talk to me will also continue to be distributed by the agency. Some 53,000 such packs were delivered in 2007. Details of how to get all of the agency's education materials are available on its website.
A two-year marketing plan aimed at encouraging adolescents to delay sexual activity and another media campaign to encourage "consistent and effective contraceptive use" are also planned. Spillane said it had been found that some 10 per cent of the population engage in unprotected sex even when they don't want to conceive. On the question of contraception use, the agency has identified three "at-risk" groups - those aged 18-24, people who are economically and educationally disadvantaged and women aged 35-55.
The importance of encouraging young people to delay having sexual intercourse was stressed. Research conducted for the agency found that women who have vaginal sex before the age of 17 are 70 per cent more likely to experience a crisis pregnancy.
Improving adolescents' knowledge about relationship and sexuality was one of seven "strategic priorities" contained in the agency's new strategy. The others are contraception, communication, crisis pregnancy services, continuation of pregnancy, research and policy influence.
The three core aims of the agency, which was set up in 2001, are to reduce the numbers of women experiencing crisis pregnancy, reduce the numbers who choose an abortion arising from a crisis pregnancy, and also to improve post-abortion health services. It received €8.76 million this year.
Bulbulia said the two "key audiences" for the agency over coming years were parents and employers. Recent research conducted for the agency had found that there was a link between crisis pregnancy and workplace policy.
She said that when this was publicised two weeks ago, employers had expressed "bewilderment" but that research clearly showed workplace culture and policy were factors in a woman's decision to opt for an abortion.
On the issue of the extent to which the agency's work was leading to a reduction in the numbers experiencing crisis pregnancy and those opting for an abortion, Spillane said last year's Irish Study of Sexual Health and Relationships had set a "baseline" and a repeat of this study in five years would give figures on progress achieved.
"It helps us to set the baseline and in five years' time we should be repeating that, and it's very hard to give overall figures until that work is done.
"But what we can say is that we can look at a range of key indicators - teenage pregnancy, teenage abortions, the overall number of abortions, people at risk of crisis pregnancy and their contraceptive use - and if we look at those things, they're all going in the right direction so that's a very positive indication," Spillane said.