Let’s get one thing clear. Nobody is proposing teaching five-year-olds about having sex.

The Government’s decision to make sex and relationships education compulsory in schools, as part of a wider programme of Personal, Social, Health and Economic education (PSHE) is a bold move.

And it would be a terrible shame if it were to get mired in false arguments about whether or not very young children should be exposed to the idea that they will one day become sexually active.

It is not about that, as the schools minister Jim Knight has made perfectly clear today. “We are not talking about five-years-olds being taught about sex ... What we are talking about in Key Stage 1 (when children are aged five to seven) is children learning about themselves, their differences, their friendships, how to manage their feelings,” he says.

Under the Government’s new proposals, which are unlikely to come into force until 2010, five to seven-year-old children will learn to talk about their friendships, peer pressure, their feelings and relationships. They will learn the names of different body parts and the concept of animals having offspring will be introduced.

At some time between the ages of 8 and 11 they will be taught about the biological aspects of sex. Once they start secondary school, the idea of contraception will be introduced.

At the same time, they will learn about navigating their way through relationships, peer pressure and ensuring their own personal safety.

Many schools already do this perfectly well. But the evidence is clear that many do not.

Ofsted has described provision as “patchy”. And a recent survey of 20,000 teenagers by the UK Youth Parliament found that teenagers are being taught sex education so badly in schools that many have no idea how to avoid sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and pregnancy.

At the same time, it seems that many parents are not confident enough to take on this role themselves. And all the evidence suggests that these long-standing failures are contributing to the country's sexual health crisis.

Diagnosis of sexually transmitted infections are up and England and Wales have the highest levels of teenage pregnancy in Europe.

Sex education in schools alone, however, is not enough. It needs to be accompanied by programmes that engage with parents and educate them to talk with their children about the subject, and with readily available services, such as sexual health clinics.

Research suggests that in countries where these three strands are available from a young age, rates of teenage pregnancy and STIs are lower. (Abstinence programmes, incidentally, do not have a particularly good track record.)

For those who are concerned that this kind of education will encourage young people to become sexually active before they are ready, a lot of this will seem rather frightening. It is thought that a third of young people already become sexually active before they reach 16, the age of consent.

But they should be reassured. The Catholic Education Service was part of the Government’s review of Sex and Relationship Education (SRE) and supports its conclusions.

This is largely because the Government accepted that SRE in faith schools will recognise the role of parents as the first educators of their children and because faith schools will be allowed to teach their own values as well.

Catholic schools, for example, will have to teach children about sex and contraception, but they should also be able to teach the Catholic Church’s opposition to contraception and its support for the sanctity of marriage at the same time.

The decision to include alcohol and drugs education within the new statutory PSHE programme should provide reassurance too. It means that young people can be taught about handling the incendiary mix of sex, peer pressure and alcohol/drugs all at the same time.

Further reassurance comes from Gill Frances, chair of the Government’s Teenage Pregnancy Independent Advisory Group: “The more young people know, the less likely they are to have sex before they are ready. Generally speaking, that’s not before you are 16. The more young people understand that and learn that, the less likely they are to have sex early,” she said.

The details of how and what sex education material should be delivered in schools is now the subject of a new review, which will also consider whether parents should have the option to withdraw their children from SRE lessons. It seems highly unlikely, however, that, having come this far, the Government will agree to this latter option.

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