JOHOR BARU: A sex survey by Uni-versiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) has found an alarming number of sexually active secondary school students with multiple sex partners.

“We carried out the research in 2011 among 1,000 secondary school students (aged 15 to 17) in 50 schools statewide.

“About 10% admitted they had sexual intercourse and some admitted to having intercourse with multiple partners,” said UTM Education faculty lecturer Faizah Abd Ghani, who headed the research.

She added students who took part in the research also admitted practising “friends with benefits” (friends with sexual relationships without emotional attachments).

Faizah revealed this at a press conference here yesterday to introduce a self-help kit aimed at tackling the issue of casual sex among teenagers in the country.

Called Model Sayangku, the kit includes a book on how to overcome sexual needs and a log book for the youngsters to write down their progress in overcoming the issue.

The book, which took four months to complete, is based on the university's findings and uses Islamic values and verses from the Quran to teach students the importance of self-value.

Faizah said the findings also correlated to cases of baby dumping and abortions among teenagers.

“A recent report from the Islamic Development Department of Malaysia (Jakim) showed some 257,000 babies were born out of wedlock in the country from 2002 to 2012.

Their races were not stated.

“All this can be connected to sexually active teenagers,” she said.

Faizah said the research showed teenagers wanted to be in relationships due to factors including physical attraction and friendship,

“Most counsellors at schools are not well-equipped to address sexual issues and we hope this kit will provide guidelines to overcome this problem,” she said, adding that all students who took part in the survey were given a copy.

Faizah said the kit had received positive feedback from the Johor Education Department and the Education Ministry.

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