Right: sex education has come a long way since the 1950s, when much of the "education" was actually moralising. However, society still wrestles with the morality of teaching children about sex.
.Arguments against schools supplying students with condoms
1. Supplying condoms is not the role of secondary schools
The president of the Victorian branch of the Australian Education Union, Mary Bluett, has indicated that the role of schools is to educate, not to supply students with condoms.
Ms Bluett stated, 'I see our role as assisting in educating young people around sex education, but not to be a dispenser of condoms ... We certainly care about our students, their health, their welfare, but our role is in educating them not providing them with condoms.'
Many of the emailed responses to the ABC's report on the question of condoms in schools indicated that respondents believed it is the parents' role to shape the sexual conduct of their children.
One commented, 'Just because children are having sex doesn't mean the adults should condone them doing it ... It is a parent's role to govern their children in morality.'
Another respondent noted, 'A couple of weeks ago my 15 year old son told me that he is able to buy condoms at one of the local supermarkets. Nobody questions him. I told him that if he ever has any difficulty in buying them to ask me to get them for him.
We have in the past discussed sexual activity in relation to disease transmission, respect for other people, and avoiding unwanted pregnancies. I am confident that he is doing the right things.' The same respondent went on to state, 'Schools seem to be expected to take on more and more responsibilities rather than concentrating on educating our young people for trades or professions.'
Another parent response on the parenting Internet site, 'Web Child' expressed a stronger view in opposition to schools distributing condoms. The female respondent stated, 'As a mother of two girls aged 5 and 8, I hope they never get sex education anywhere other than home... I firmly believe that parenting and sex education belong at home. Handing out condoms at schools - at any age - should not be allowed as no kids should be having sex. If they do - their parents should be held responsible for any consequences.'
Father Brendan Reed, deputy director of the Victorian Catholic Education Office's schools division, has asked, 'Is the classroom setting really the most appropriate place to deal with one of the most intimate relationships of the human person?'
Father Reed has further stated, 'There's a role for schools to educate students in the biology of sexuality. But we would also have parents say to us, `I don't want my son or daughter talking about the intimacies of sexual relationships in a classroom of 25 or 30 15-yearolds with a teacher I don't know'.
2. Supplying condoms could be seen as promoting sexual activity
It has been claimed that supplying condoms in schools could actually promote sexual activity. It has been claimed that this could occur for two reasons. Supplying condoms may encourage young people to believe that their having sex is actually sanctioned by the school. It is also possible that reducing students' fear of unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases could encourage them to have sex.
Dr Kevin Minch, Assistant Professor of Communication and Director of Forensics, Truman State University, Kirksville, Missouri, has stated, 'Widespread condom distribution will establish sexual activity as the norm among young teens, creating peer pressure to participate in sex. The added temptation to engage in sexual activity that is "protected" will result in more women having sex at a younger age, perhaps furthering their exploitation.'
Dr Minch has also stated, 'Providing students with condoms actually encourages the earlier onset of sexual activity. If young people believe they will be "safe" when using a condom they are much less likely to be deterred from engaging in dangerous and immoral behaviour.'
The same view has been expressed in a variety of countries other than the United States`. A father commenting on an opinion piece published in Dominica Weekly stated, 'Distributing the condoms does seem to be an acceptance measure and may send the wrong message to teens who are not having sex that they may be odd.
Both the rise of HIV/AIDS and teenage pregnancy must be addressed but I think they can be addressed socially.'
3. Supplying condoms is not a completely reliable way of preventing either pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases
It has been claimed that young people could be led into a false sense of security if they believe that condoms will protect them from all the unwanted consequences of sexual activity.
Though condoms reduce the likelihood of contracting a sexual disease, they do not completely remove it. Some diseases are more readily spread than others and some can be transmitted by lesions not covered by a condom, the effectiveness of condoms varies by disease. Condoms are about 50% effective in reducing the transmission of herpes between sexual partners.
According to a 2004 bulletin from the World Health Organization and a 2001 report by the National Institutes of Health, individual studies found condom use reduced the risk of infection for Gonorrhea, by 49 percent to 75 percent in men, and by 39 percent to 62 percent in women. The same source stated that changes of contracting Chlamydia are reduced by 26 percent to 90 percent in women and by 33 percent in men. The chances of infection with pelvic inflammatory disease are reduced by 55 percent and syphilis, by 40 percent to 60 percent in both sexes. The chances of contracting genital ulcers (cancroids), are reduced by 18 percent to 23 percent
With perfect condom use, chances of being infected with the HIV virus are reduced about 80 percent; that translates into less than a 1 percent chance of infection over a year. Perfect use means a condom is used every time and is put on before any skin-to-skin contact.
There is no evidence condoms prevent human papilloma virus, HPV, a group of viruses that can cause cervical cancer but are usually killed by the immune system.
Condoms are also not a completely reliable method of birth control. For partners in a regular relationship, condoms reduce the chances of pregnancy over a year's time to 3 percent with perfect use and 14 percent with typical use, compared with 85 percent with no birth control.
It has further been noted that for young users, condoms are likely to be less reliable than they are for older couples in stable relationships. Dr. Kevin J. Minch, Assistant Professor of Communication and Director of Forensics, Truman State University, Kirksville, Missouri has stated, 'The effectiveness of condoms is grossly exaggerated. If not used properly, condoms can be highly ineffective. Young people are more likely to use condoms incorrectly, due to lack of experience with them or because they are drunk.'
4. Schools should develop adequate sex education programs before they distribute condoms
It has been claimed that the increased availability of condoms will have no significant impact on adolescent pregnancies and sexual disease rate unless it is accompanied by a meaningful sex education program.
A recent Medical Journal of Australia article written by Rachel Skinner and Martha Hickey stated, 'It has been argued that the constant presence of sexualised images in Western countries creates pressure on adolescents to have sexual relationships. Yet countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia have not implemented comprehensive sexual-health education programs to teach adolescents the skills to resist these pressures or to protect themselves from adverse consequences.'
The same journal article made the following recommendation, 'It is imperative that Australia develop a coordinated policy to adequately cater for the reproductive and sexual health needs of adolescents. This should include recommendations for the development and implementation of comprehensive evidence-based sexual and reproductive health education, particularly targeting children and younger adolescents.'
Currently there is no mandated, comprehensive sex education policy in Australia's government and private school systems. Most sex education is taught under broad policy documents that set curriculum standards in each sector but leave it up to individual schools to decide the content and detail.
The Victorian Government sets standards for its schools under the Victorian Essential Learning Standards, a policy also used by many private schools. It includes standards such as interpersonal development and health and physical education, under which sexual health can be taught.
However, Anne Mitchell, an adolescent health expert at the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, says the policy is too vague and allows schools to do very little sex education should they choose.
5. Condoms are already easily available; schools do not have to supply them
It has been claimed that condoms are so readily available that there is no need for schools to supply them. Condoms are not supplied under prescription and never have been. They are also no longer exclusively a pharmacist's product. They are available from the supermarket and can be bought along with a can of coke and a packet of chewing gum.
Mary Bluett, the Victoria president of the Australian Education Union, has stated, 'In the past, condoms were not freely available for young people and it was difficult for them to find them, but they're now on the shelves at their local supermarket, so I don't see that there's a significant need for this [the supply of condoms in schools].'
It has been noted that in addition to chemists and supermarkets, condoms can also be purchased online. Being able to purchase online means that young people are able to buy condoms without having to face the embarrassment of making a public purchase.