Student organisations want more effective sex education
Condom use below European average among Finnish young people
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Sakki, a Finnish organisation promoting the interests of students in vocational schools, is calling for more radical and frank information on sexual issues. The students also want better access to information on sexual health.
"Health care services are inadequate. For instance, nobody regularly keeps track of the well-being of 130,000 young people studying for a profession", laments Sakki chairwoman Kati Kokkonen.
According to a study conducted by Sakki in 2005, more than five percent of students studying in vocational schools had caught a sexually transmitted disease. Nearly as many said that they did not know if they had one or not.
"Sex education from comprehensive school does not stay in one’s memory for the rest of a person’s life. If a nurse were available at a school more often than once a week, for instance, knowledge about sex matters would be at a better level", Kokkonen says.
Use of condoms by Finnish young people is lower than the European average, and doctors have said that knowledge of sexual health among Finnish youth is weak.
In December the AIDS Support Centre is launching a safe sex campaign directed at young people which will involve many student organisations. The aim is to remind kids that it is not possible to tell from a person’s face if he or she has an STD, and that both friends and strangers can carry an infection. The campaign emphasises that when used correctly, a condom provides good protection against infections.
Riika Saarinen, a student at the Helsinki Upper Secondary School of Visual Arts, denies suggestions that Finnish young people would not be interested in their sexual health.
She is very critical of the image projected by television, youth magazines, and films on young people’s sexuality.
"Already at an early age girls are given the model of a beautiful and quiet submissive person who keeps her legs smooth. How often does a movie show a woman as the receipient of oral sex, and how often is she the one that gives?" Saarinen says.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 10.11.2006 - TODAY |
 Student organisations want more effective sex education
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