A cross-sectional descriptive survey through a selfadministered,rnanonymous and structured questionnaire was conductedrnfrom September to December, 1993 in ten high schools in Addis Ababarnto determine the sexual behaviour of adolescents, their knowledgernabout AIDS, attitudes and practices regarding condoms, theirrnattitudes towards the promotion and distribution of condoms inrnschools, and towards the incorporation of health and sex educationrninto the regular teaching curricula and into the teachers' trainingrncurricula.rnA total of 910 parents, 755 students and 232 teachersrnparticipated in the survey. The results showed that, of the 355rnstudents, 39.8% of the boys and 5.6% of the girls have had a sexualrnexperience. Peer pressure (35.2%) and by force (21.6%) were thernmost important factors that precipitated the first sexualrnencounter. 10 . 1% had coital contact with a commercial sex worker.rnOnly 42.2% of the sexually active students used condoms on theirrnfirst sexual encounter, and only 27 .7% used condoms continuously onrntheir subsequent sexual encounters. 59.0% of the parents, 56.6% ofrnthe teachers and 37.7% of the students felt that most students havernadequate knowledge about AIDS. Only 38.8% of the parents, 34.0% ofrnthe teachers and 42.8% the students felt that most students havernadequate information about condoms.rn61.2% of the students, 60 . 0% of the parents and 61.6% of thernteachers approved the idea of condom distribution in schools. Arnstratified analysis identified only age for parents, sex forrnstudents and religion for teachers to have a statisticallyrnsignificant influence upon the attitude towards the distribution ofrncondoms in schools.rnAn overwhelming majority in each of the three categories,rn92.6% of the students, 98.7% of the parents and 96.1% of thernteachers, approved the incorporation of health education into thernregular teaching curricula. 80.1% of the students, 90 . 9% of thernparents and 96.1% of the teachers also supported the idea of sexrneducation in schools.rnThis study, based upon the findings, recommends that educationrnand health policy makers to make a relent l ess effort to commencernhealth and sex education by incorporating them into the regularrncurricula; the implementation of subsequent surveys to identify thernmost effective and acceptable routes of condom distribution inrnschools; and implementation of similar surveys in the ruralrnsettings to assess the attitudes in a different setting and acquirerna more general overview for the whole country .