A House of Commons select committee recently said if teenage pregnancies are to be reduced much more "openness" is needed in sex education.

This ignores the fact that a massive increase in such pregnancies during the last 30 years or so has been accompanied by an unparalleled degree of sexual awareness among schoolchildren.

Now even five-year-olds are exposed to this education, which can awaken prurient and inappropriate curiosity.

Such a trend, by breaking down the natural resistance of children, will inevitably counter measures taken against child abuse.

Young children will be required to label all the body parts on a chart.

This will undermine any infantile modesty, whether innate or inculcated by the family.

Sex education needs to be radically reviewed.

At present, overweening emphasis is put on contraception rather than abstinence and emotional feelings rather than commitment.

Many parents do not wish their children to be brought up in accordance with this progressive dogmatism.

-John Dixon, Storrington, Pulborough