Does sexual education in High School impact the rate of sexually transmitted infections in adolescents?

What are your thoughts on the types of sex ed programs,
condoms being given to teenagers, abstinence only programs? Is this helping or hurting our teenagers?

A substantial proportion of teenagers are sexually active. An estimated 43% of adolescents aged 15 to 19 have had at least one sex partner in the previous year, and about 13% of these reported having at least two partners during that time. In addition, the rate of chlamydia among females in this age range is six times the national average. This clearly demonstrates the need for effective sexual health education programs, policies and services.

Despite declines in the teen pregnancy rate, close to 350,000 teens become pregnant each year and most of these pregnancies are unintended. Sexually transmitted infection rates among Canadian teens are unacceptably high and have been rising in recent years. Together, these data suggest that an increase in coordinated efforts, involving families, schools, health care providers, public health agencies, and communities, to provide sexual health education and related services is needed in order to support the health and well-being of Canadian youth.

Well developed and implemented school-based sexual health education programs can effectively help youth reduce their risk of STI/HIV infection and unintended pregnancy and provide insights into broader aspects of sexuality, including sexual well-being and rewarding interpersonal relationships.

Canadian parents want schools to provide broadly based sexual health education. A series of surveys of Canadian parents have consistently found that over 85% of parents agreed with the statement 鈥淪exual health education should be provided in the schools鈥?and a majority of these parents approved of schools providing young people with information on a wide variety of sexual health topics including: puberty, reproduction, healthy relationships, STI/AIDS prevention, birth control, abstinence, sexual orientation and sexual abuse/coercion.
Canadian young people are also highly supportive of sexual health education in the schools. For example, a recent survey of high school youth found that 92% agreed that 鈥淪exual health education should be provided in the schools鈥?and they rated the following topics as either 鈥渧ery important鈥?or 鈥渆xtremely important鈥? puberty, reproduction, personal safety, sexual coercion & sexual assault, sexual decision-making in dating relationships, birth control methods and safer sex practices, and sexually transmitted diseases.

Sexual Health Education does not lead to earlier or more frequent sexual activity. Kirby (2001) in reviewing the evaluation literature concluded that sexuality and HIV education programs: do not hasten the onset of intercourse; do not increase the frequency of intercourse; do not increase the number of sexual partners.

鈥淎bstinence-only鈥?school-based programs that focus exclusively on sexual abstinence and that do not provide information and skills related to consistent contraceptive use and safer sex practices are ineffective.

Effective sexual health education supports informed decision-making by providing individuals with the opportunity to develop the knowledge, personal insight, motivation and behavioural skills that are consistent with each individual鈥檚 personal values and choices.

IT IS HELPING and would help a lot more if it was more prevalent. We need to improve the quality of our childrens sexual health education.