One of her counsellors, Mr Vanan Julian Pillay, a programme executive at HEAT (HIV/Aids Education And Training) Consultants, told The New Paper on Sunday: 'She is taking it one day at a time.

There has been a stark increase in the number of teenagers who have been treated for sexually-transmitted infections: From 250 cases in 2002 to 678 last year.

Ms Khoo Hoon Eng, Aware's Advisor to the HIV and Women Sub-committee, said participants in a recent focus group discussion told them many of their friends started having sex at 16, with some as starting as young as 14.

Since more youths are increasingly experimenting with sex, Mr Vanan felt that the message from counsellors and healthcare workers must be direct and candid.

Miss Miranda Joseph, 20, a Singapore Management University student said: 'Sex education in school was useless. They teach abstinence, but the reality is we all will get tempted and break rules.

Unlike Singapore, he said 'in some countries, they have trained teenagers to serve as peer counsellors to get safe sex or abstinence messages through'.

Replying to The New Paper on Sunday's queries, the Ministry of Education (MOE) said that in schools now, topics on sexuality are covered in curricular subjects such as health education in the upper primary levels.

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