New York, Apr 18 (IANS): Sex education is important for teenagers to stay healthy but educating them about sex from either parents or school has significantly dropped than a decade ago, media reported on Monday.

The study from the non-profit organisation Guttmacher Institute found that overall, 21 percent of girls and 35 percent of boys did not receive any information about birth control from either their parents or school, teenvogue.com reported.

“Sex education is crucial in preventing unwanted pregnancies, avoiding STDs and maintaining an overall healthy body,” Leslie Kantor from Planned Parenthood Federation of America, a nonprofit organisation, was quoted as saying.

“Sex education can make a real difference in adolescents' overall health and well-being. The fact that young people are being deprived of information critical to their sexual health is unacceptable,” added Kantor in the paper published in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

The findings showed that the number of teenage girls who were formally taught about birth control dropped 10 percent, from 70 percent to 60 percent.

The number of teenage girls taught about STDs dropped from 94 percent to 90 percent and HIV/AIDS education went from 89 percent to 86 percent.

For teenage boys, the number taught about birth control went from 61 percent to 55 percent.

“At a time when there are 20 million new cases of sexually-transmitted diseases every year in the US and rates of unintended pregnancy among teens remain the highest of any industrialised country, the fact that schools are teaching less about birth control, sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS, and saying no to sex is alarming,” Kantor stated.

“We hope that this study serves as a wake-up call that the country can and must do better in giving young people the sex education they need and deserve,” Kantor pointed out.