Teen Times Rachel BradfordIreland needs a better - no, it needs an actual - sex-education programme, but sadly this isn't being provided.

Sometimes it seems as though nobody in charge is listening. And, surprise, surprise, the only group mature enough to insist that young people are educated about sex are the ones who, according to statistics, are most at risk of transmitting a Sexually Transmitted Infection (STI) and are the same group who, according to adults, go around getting pregnant all the time.

The people who really want an effective sex-education programme are teenagers. Yes adults, you heard right. This is not so that we can go around getting up to all sorts of sordid carry-on. It's so we can actually protect ourselves against the growing epidemic of STIs and prevent bringing a child into this world when we're not quite ready to even look after ourselves.

This, however, is being denied to us. No matter how much our Social, Physical and Health Education (SPHE) teachers would no doubt love to prepare us and make us sex wise, they simply are not allowed, until it's too late and many of us are already sexually active and possibly unaware of the risks involved, apart from pregnancy.

Ignorance is not bliss; ignorance is dangerous. The Netherlands is one European country where this is recognised. It starts its sex-education programme in primary school, raising awareness of contraception and STIs. By secondary school, sexual health is openly discussed, both the biological and social aspects. Are Dutch teens, as a result of their informed and early sex education, a bunch of STI-ridden delinquents, with almost every teenage girl pushing a baby in a pram? No. The Netherlands has the lowest teenage pregnancy rate in the whole of Europe. It has a very high average age for a youth's first sexual intercourse of 17.7 years and very low STI rates amongst young people, with the majority consistently using condoms as a contraceptive. Perhaps there is something we can learn from this.

Parents, teachers, the Government and people in positions of authority should wake up and realise that keeping sex a taboo subject is not the right approach. A situation where sex seems squalid and something to be ashamed of shouldn't be accepted in today's society and is not the way forward. Teenagers are going to become adults. We are going to form adult relationships. It's procreation. It's supposed to happen. So why not ensure that Irish teens are getting the sex education that we deserve and need; the sex education that could lower Ireland's teenage pregnancy rates and STI rates? Why not have sex education that goes beyond, "you could get pregnant, always use a condom"? Ireland has a chronic need for a sex-education programme similar to that in the Netherlands. It is a need that should be met.

Rachel Bradford, aged 16, is a transition-year student at Mercy Secondary School, Goldenbridge in Dublin

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