Mr. Jamie Wiggins:

On sexual health, the key issues raised by Comhairle na nÓg are that majority of comhairlí feel that the teaching of RSE and SPHE is both inadequate and inconsistent and that more sexually transmitted infection, STI, testing clinics are needed for young people. A number of comhairlí are currently working on the quality of teaching in respect of RSE and SPHE.

In the context of sexual health education, young people in Comhairle na nÓg are of the view that the teaching of RSE is inconsistent and that the quality of teaching varies from school to school. There is no SPHE course for the senior cycle and it is at the discretion of the individual teacher or school as to what topics are covered in class. This is a matter which was also worked on by a former Dáil na nÓg council.

On young people's research on sex education, the 2009 Dáil na nÓg council carried out a survey on the implementation of SPHE and RSE in secondary schools. Some 94 schools in 13 counties took part in the RSE survey and it emerged that: 63% of students surveyed said they never had an RSE class; in 50% of schools surveyed RSE was timetabled into religion classes and 91% of young people felt that learning RSE in school was either important or very important to their education.

The Donegal Comhairle na nÓg has worked on the topic of sexual health in schools. It recently compiled questions to be put to survey students in the Donegal schools in order to discover the extent to which the sexual health element of RSE is being taught in Donegal. It was examining the best way to circulate the surveys to the students to get an honest answer without an influence from teachers and principals.