"I felt like the topics we discuss in class are somehow inappropriate for people our age," explained Laasik, a student at Kristjan Jaak Peterson High School in Tartu, in an appearance on ETV's "Terevisioon" morning show on Wednesday.

"These classes focus more on parenthood and marriage, but I believe they should focus more on sexuality and violence and issues affecting our youth instead, because our society doesn't encourage young people to have kids and get married right out of high school," she continued.

Currently, sex ed is covered in only one class in high school – family studies, in 10th grade.

In her research paper, Laasik concluded that there are two few classes on sexual topics in Estonia's school curriculum, and that the content of sex ed classes should be brought up to date as well.

"I would change the topics we cover in class," she stressed. "Of course there isn't enough time to cover everything, but we could do lectures and still insist that every student gains the necessary knowledge from these classes."

For her paper, Laasik researched the questions students themselves had asked anonymously during family studies classes over a period of eight years, and examined how many of the topics involved are covered in the current curriculum.

"The questions most frequently asked by young people were about sex, but that topic isn't even mentioned in the curriculum," she highlighted. "There were also a lot of questions about violence too. This is now touched on in the new curriculum, but unfortunately there's still nothing in there about trauma."

According to the Tartu student, the topic of intimate partner violence is of particular interest to young people.

"A lot was asked about where that clear line is drawn and whether there is a difference between bullying and violence – this has remained very confusing for young folks," she explained. "The questions were very troubling indeed. They asked, for example, what sexual violence even is, and the most surprising question was whether a woman can only orgasm after having given birth."

Laasik said that unfortunately it still isn't customary in Estonian culture to talk about these matters at home, adding that the topic is quickly glossed over without going into any specifics.

"In school, the average age of our teachers is also quite high, and even younger teachers lack the training to discuss these topics with empathy," she continued, highlighting another reason why the curriculum is both out of date and out of touch today.

The high schooler emphasized that it's a matter of if someone young really wants an answer to a question, will they look for it from a credible source or will they read stories and myths that spread online and then draw their own conclusions accordingly. It's also not uncommon for teens and kids to seek answers from porn sites instead, which in turn actually raise even more questions, she added.

"The main conclusion of my research paper was that the sex ed curriculum in schools needs to be critically reviewed, because young people still expect to receive information specifically from school, and this is currently still the only suitable source of information for them," Kaasik said.

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