Parental opposition to sex education: pretext or reality?

A major obstacle to the development of a school family life and sex education (FL/SE) programme is a presumed lack of parental and community endorsement of this instructional area. The study investigated the views of 1,100 parents concerning the amount of instructional emphasis that should be given to FL/SE at four school grades. Two major findings were (1) parental support ranged from 48% to 60% indicating that FL/SE should receive major teaching emphasis; (2) not more than 12% at any one grade indicated that FL/SE should receive no instructional emphasis. These findings appear to concur with those of similar surveys in the U.S. The author concludes that schools should determine the degree of parental support before moving ahead in this area, and proposes that they undertake research similar to the survey he carried out.