KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 17 — Respondents in a recent survey agreed that teachers in training should be required to learn about sex education first in order to better educate the youngsters.

In the survey titled "Malaysia Temperature Check 2020” that was led by electoral advocacy group Undi18 in collaboration with youth non-profit Architects of Diversity and pollster Vase.ai, 70 per cent agreed with the above while 13 per cent disagreed.

Sixty per cent of the 1,027 respondents in the survey also said that sex education should remain mandatory.

The survey also revealed that 37 per cent of Malaysians disagree that Malaysia should abolish vernacular schools, while 38 per cent agree it should go and 53 per cent agree that the quota for non-bumiputra students in the pre-university matriculation programme should be increased.

This survey was conducted on September 3 and involved 1,027 respondents among Vase.ai’s online panel that was selected using active quota sampling-method.

All respondents aged 18 and above were quota sampled according to census statistics by race, gender, age and region of residence. There were no open-ended questions in this survey.

Individuals aged 65 and above are underrepresented, likely due to lower rates of Internet usage among those above 60, the survey said.

The organisers said this survey was commissioned to understand the Malaysians’ opinion on contemporary social and economic issues, as well as understudied opinions.

"It was also intended to discover what are Malaysians agreeing and disagreeing with, in order to guide further public conversations and future policy directions.

"This research is also an attempt at identifying what are Malaysians undecided on, in order to facilitate discussions and better education on these particular issues,” it said.