SCHOOL pupils face a postcode lottery over the information they receive about sexual health as HIV diagnosis rates in Scotland among the 15-24 year old group are currently running at two per month, a charity has claimed.
HIV Scotland says an average of two young people between the ages of 15 and 24 are being told they have the disease.
The charity said sexual health lessons are not compulsory and found that “inconsistencies exist across Scotland’s 32 local authorities on how lessons are taught, the resources that are used and the level of content related to HIV”.
Spokesman Nathan Sparling said: “Scotland has failed to reduce HIV infection rates in any significant way. That’s why we are calling for schools to be educating young people about the wide variety of prevention measures, including (anti-HIV medication) PrEP.
“This will help Scotland play its part in the global mission to eliminate new HIV transmissions.
Education Minister for Shirley-Anne Somerville said it would consider a new report by the charity.
She added: "As well as working with the Time for Inclusive Education (TIE) Campaign to improve the inclusive approach to sex and relationships education, we are undertaking a national review of personal and social education.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel