Rutgers and Soa Aids Nederland are organizing the Week of Love for the seventh time, in collaboration with the Municipal Health Services. With the theme ‘Let’s talk about love and sex’, the event focuses on communication, flirting, dating and relationships—both online and offline. This year, the Week of Love will last two weeks, from 12 to 23 February, because of the spring holidays.

Manouk Vermeulen, an expert in sex education at Rutgers: “With good, structural sex education, a new generation can grow up with respect for themselves and one another, enabling them to form healthy, desired and enjoyable relationships from this foundation. The Week of Love is a good starting point for schools to offer the theme on a structural basis. That means lessons every year and a continuous learning pathway.”

Too few lessons and too little information

Young people rate the information they receive and have received at school about sexuality as barely satisfactory (5.6). This figure has even fallen slightly compared with 2017. This is shown by the recent ‘Sex under 25’ study by Rutgers and Soa Aids Nederland.

Two-thirds of the young people who rate their sex education as insufficient believe that too few lessons were given at school. Half say they do not receive the information they want. Young people also indicate that topics such as sexual boundary violations, sexual pleasure and sex in the (social) media are hardly covered in the lessons.

Unreliable and incomplete

To find answers to questions about sexuality and relationships, three-quarters of young people search for information online. The information they find online may be incorrect, incomplete or sometimes even harmful. It is therefore very important that schools provide reliable information.

Further training for teachers

Teachers also recognize the importance of relationship and sex education. This is shown by a recent survey conducted by DUO Educational Research and consultancy among vocational education programs. Nearly 80 percent of teachers in vocational education say that lessons about relationships and sexuality are important. Nevertheless, few teaching materials recognized by the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) are used: only 15 percent of teachers use these teaching materials.

Both teachers and school leaders say they want to develop more knowledge and skills in the area of sexuality and relationships. They would also like to receive more further training or refresher courses. The government could invest more in this, including by embedding the theme in the qualification requirements for vocational education and further anchoring the current Healthy Relationships & Sexuality Incentive Scheme within vocational education.

Week of Love

During the Week of Love, schools in secondary education, practical education, secondary special education and vocational education focus on relationship and sex education. During this week, teachers can deepen their knowledge using (new) teaching materials. LAKS is also organizing a Week of Love event on 16 February at the library on Neude Square in Utrecht, with activities for secondary school students.