Sex education lessons have failed to reduce the numbers of teenage pregnancies, according to new research.

A Medical Research Council study found that a series of explicit sex education programmes in Scotland was shown to be no better in cutting teenage pregnancies than standard sex education lessons.

Britain's teenage pregnancy rates are the highest in western Europe and the government has pledged to halve by 2010 the rates in girls up to 18.

Forum Response: Association of Teachers and Lecturers

Sheila Dainton, educational adviser at the ATL, told ePolitix.com: "We need to be utterly frank in sexual matters with children. We will look at the new report carefully.

"One important area is how early should children start to receive sex education in school. It is a controversial point, but children start asking questions about: 'Where do babies come from?' at a very early age, so we must give them honest answers that are not misleading.

"The advice to teachers on sex education from government departments could be improved. The advice given by the Department of Health is reasonably hardnosed and pragmatic but guidelines from the Department of Education, in our view, tend to be a bit soft around the edges.

"Sex education must be done in partnership with parents. Teachers are willing to teach sex education given proper training. However, the responsibility is not just with schools - parents' involvement is critical."

Forum Response: Medical Research Council

Dr Daniel Wight. Who is based at the MRC's Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, told ePolitix.com: "It's encouraging to know for future work that this type of education is acceptable and helpful to pupils."But it also clearly shows we need to develop and assess other methods of helping young people to make responsible individual choices, if affecting behaviour rather than just their knowledge and attitudes, remains a core objective of school-based sex education."

Forum Response: British Pregnancy Advice Service

A spokeswoman for the BPAS told ePolitix.com: "The results of today's published study will not come as a great surprise to many people. It is however, encouraging to see that this type of sex education is well received by young people and seems to increase their knowledge of sexual health issues.

"BPAS has always held the view that the high teenage pregnancy rate in the UK was due to a complex number of social, economic and cultural factors and not just issues relating to the quality of sexual education and access to contraceptive supplies. In particular, the expectations and ambitions of young people seem to have a significant effect on their motivation to avoid pregnancy and determine whether the pregnancy ends in a birth or an abortion.

"This type of sex education is clearly a step in the right direction, but it needs to work hand in hand with greater educational opportunities for young people, accessible contraceptive, abortion and sexual health services and a shift in attitudes towards teenage sex."

Forum Response: Professional Association of Teachers

Jean Gemmell, general secretary of the Professional Association of Teachers, told ePolitix.com: "These findings come as no surprise. The media and society inevitably impact greatly on young people's attitudes and, therefore, their actions.

"Sex education of facts is, in most schools, reinforced by PSHE (Personal, Social and Health Education). The regulations on sex education that state schools work under are very complicated and, in certain circumstances, parents can withdraw their children from sex education when it is not part of a formal examination syllabus."