A ComRes survey of schools around Britain for Channel 4 shows half of 13- to 17-year-olds questioned (49 per cent) felt they had received too little SRE in their schools.
The majority of pupils (56 per cent) said they are most likely to learn about sex from their friends. And 82 per cent of the 1,123 questioned wanted sex and relationships education to come from a trained young person.
The survey suggests current SRE lessons are not meeting young people’s needs. The government is due to publish an internal review of personal, social, health and economic education on 30 November.
The poll found that half (49 per cent) of pupils felt awkward asking questions in their SRE lessons taught by teachers, compared to only one in five who felt comfortable asking questions.
But 67 per cent of pupils said they would be comfortable asking questions to a trained young person.
In total 70 per cent wanted to receive more SRE lessons taught by a trained young person compared to three per cent who didn’t.
Shereece Marcantonio, an 18-year-old peer sex and relationships educator from east London, has been campaigning for teenagers to be taught by trained older teenagers.
She said: "My campaign has always been about changing the national curriculum, by trying to get peer-to-peer teaching of sex and relationship education.
"If we can educate kids in a relaxed and engaging way, we can help avoid unwanted pregnancies and help teenagers cope with their first sexual experiences safely."
