HIGHLAND Regional Council may have to consider making condoms

available in its secondary schools following results of a survey into

the lifestyles of the region's fourth- year pupils.

The survey, published yesterday, showed that 39% of pupils in S4 have

already had sexual intercourse, that for one in five of these it had

first happened when they were 12 or 13, and that pupils in rural areas

are more embarrassed about buying condoms locally.

Strathclyde University's Centre for Social Marketing was commissioned

jointly by the region and Highland Health Board to research the

lifestyles of 661 fourth-year pupils at 13 of the region's 27 secondary

schools in both urban and rural settings.

The findings are to be used to help develop teaching packages warning

of the dangers of unprotected sex, and drug misuse.

The report, Lifestyle and HIV/Aids: A study of young people in

Highland 1992-1993, found that 75% of the sample said they had used

contraception on the first occasion of sexual intercourse, with 91%

using condoms, 16% the pill, and 3% withdrawal.

Around 66% said they recognised that having sex without a condom with

someone from outwith the local area provided a large risk of

transmitting HIV/Aids. This awareness was second only to the 92% who

recognised the dangers in sharing needles while injecting drugs.

Despite attaching such importance to condoms, when asked about sources

of free condoms, 20% answered ''Nowhere -- Cannot get free condoms'',

23% didn't know, and 10% made no answer.

Ms Anne Marie MacKintosh and Mr Douglas Eadie, the report's authors,

said the overall results were largely the same as national trends. They

did, however, highlight the significant rural-urban difference that 51%

of the pupils sampled in rural areas claimed that free condoms were not

available in their area, compared with 18% of urban respondents.

The pupils were also asked about being embarrassed buying condoms, 69%

said that they would be very embarrassed or quite embarrassed about

buying them at their local shop, 67% at their local garage, and 52%

obtaining condoms from their local doctor. Again, there was greater

embarrassment, 15%, about buying condoms in rural areas.

At the publication of the report in Inverness yesterday, Highland

Health Board member Mrs Caroline Thomson, who chairs the board's harm

reduction committee, was asked whether, in the light of these figures,

it might not be more helpful to make condoms available in schools.

She replied: ''Yes it would be but we can appreciate the sensitivities

and I think the education department is working very hard to this end. I

think it would be the answer but what we must do is to look for the

support of parents and teachers and ask these young people what it is

they actually require.

''A lot of these 15-year-olds are very emotionally mature, they will

take a conscious decision to commence a sexual relationship, are

responsible and have thought about it and known their partners for some

time. We would want to make access to condoms as easy as possible for

all these reasons.''

Mrs Val MacIver, chairwoman of the region's education committee, said:

''I think this is something that has to be debated within the authority

and parent groups, and school boards.

''If you commission a report and look at the results of it and say

that's fine and put it away in a drawer, that's the easy option.

''But the reason for commissioning the report was to find out what is

actually happening and there is no doubt to my mind, as one individual

member of the council, that we do have a problem, and it is a problem

that has to be addressed sooner rather than later, not just by the

education authority but by the parents as well.

''I would emphasise that it has to be done in a partnership between

the council, the health board, and the parents.''

Mrs MacIver said the education department had already taken account of

the figures, which showed that sexual experience can begin in S1 and S2,

and had revamped HIV/Aids teaching materials, originally designed for S3

and S4, so that they could be used in the earlier years.

Increasing availability of condoms has always been condemned by

Highland Churches, which have long held that chastity before and

fidelity during marriage are the only way to tackle the spread of Aids.

However, at yesterday's launch, Highland Aids officer Brian Devlin

said: ''I think that one of the worst things we can do just now is call

out the moral cavalry, because there is no easy moral answer.''