View Single Post
Old 11-03-2009, 04:43 PM   #30
DanaC
We have to go back, Kate!
 
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Yorkshire
Posts: 25,964
Doubt it. Just because contraception is freely available doesn't mean youngsters take up that offer. As Sundae said: education, education, education.

I found it very frustrating when I was a committee member on the Children and Young People's scrutiny panel in council, that whilst the government had put money into creating a curriculum for sex health education, it was optional for the school's as to whether they took it up and optional for the parents whether their children attended. Consequently none of the church schools opted to take that option. One of the areas (my ward) of our borough had one of the worst teenage conception rates in the country. Two of the main secondary(high) schools in that area were church schools, one CofE and one Catholic. They pointblank refused to take on board the sex education curriculum for their kids.

Another problem in our schools is that even where they do have sex education, it's rarely a specialist teacher. usually it's a teacher of a different subject (often the gym teacher) who gets drafted in (or volunteers) to do a few sessions. So, even where schools have considered it important enough to teach, it doesn't carry the same expertise as any other subject. In reality it requires expertise and a greater level of sensitivity than most other subjects in order to be in any way effective.

Even with all those factors taken care of, and a school with a trained teacher delivering a well-designed curriculum: that doesn't solve the many different cultural problems which may be at play. Unsurprisingly, whilst teenaged conception is not exclusively a problem for the poor, there are much higher levels in areas of high deprivation. Then of course you get into the vicious cycle: the children of teenagers are far more likely to grow up and become teenaged parents themselves, than the children of older parents.

It's a very complex issue. Education is one element. Economics, and culture also play a role. As indeed do parenting skills, but there we're back into the cycle again.

It's entirely erroneous to point to the fact we have free contraception and suggest that as a reason for teenagers getting pregnant. We have free contraception everywhere in the country: but high teenaged conception rates occur in hotspots, not across the whole country, and not across whole towns.
__________________
Quote:
There's only so much punishment a man can take in pursuit of punani. - Sundae
http://sites.google.com/site/danispoetry/
DanaC is offline   Reply With Quote