40% of schools without proper sex education

FOUR out of 10 secondary schools have failed to fully implement the State’s sex education programme since it was introduced nine years ago, a conference on adolescent sexual behaviour and sexual health heard yesterday.

Frances Shearer, coordinator of the Relationship and Sexuality Education (RSE) programme, said the overcrowded curriculum was hindering the implementation of the programme in secondary schools.

The curriculum was identified as a major problem by 77% of teachers in research published by the Department of Education five years ago, and new research shows that it remains a problem.