New course is effort to fight Soviet divorce

All Soviet schools will introduce sex education in September as part of a new effort to give young people better preparation for married life, the trade union newspaper Trud reported. Such instruction was launched as a pilot scheme in some cities a year ago. Despite strong resistance among some parents and teachers, Trud said the course would now be compulsory for all 16-year-olds.

A separate report said that Moscow city authorities have opened a marriage guidance office for the first time. Soviet authorities are acutely sensitive about the high divorce rate - around 50 percent in the European part of the country. It is considered a major reason for the steady decline in the birth rate among Russians and other European nationalities in the country.