School students in China do not have much knowledge about safe sex, and teachers worry about being considered 'dirty' by parents if they talk about sex in front of students, say experts.
A report released at the 9th Guangzhou Sex Culture Festival in Guangdong province said around three percent of middle school students in the province have had sexual intercourse.
Of these students, nearly 14 percent did not take any contraceptive measures, according to the Shanghai Daily.
The report was based on a survey of more than 1,000 junior middle and high school students in the province.
It said 30 percent of the students support sex before marriage provided it is consensual.
Among those interviewed, 35 percent said they had never had any sex education while 48 percent who did get such education criticised it as being "too conservative".
Zhang Feng, director of the Guangdong Provincial Population and Family Planning Commission, told Nanfang Daily: "Many teachers worry about being considered 'dirty' by parents, or are too shy to talk about sex in front of students, which is a big mistake."
At least 27 percent of the respondents admitted they had no idea that "a foetus lives in a woman's uterus", the report said.
Most survey respondents said they learnt about sex from their friends. Nearly 11 percent said they knew about sex from pornographic websites.
"Sex education definitely should be far more than physical knowledge; it must also include psychology and social relationships. The schools should fill in the blank," Zhang said.