Hoax: Austrian sex school was a publicity stunt

It turns out the Swedish headmistress of the sex school, Ylva-Maria Thompson, was faking it all along.

She was to fling the doors open to a 1400 Euro-a –term institution, where classes were described as “not theoretical, but very practical”, where students would learn new sexual positions and "caressing techniques".

Thompson encouraged anyone over the age of 16 to enrol and even to practise their homework in the mixed-sex dormitory. The

Austrian sex school even had its own website where people could register.

However, it has emerged it was a publicity stunt courtesy of the campaign group, The BirdBase, which wanted to draw attention to the low birth rate and bad pension system in Austria.

The BirdBase distributed a press release that revealed the trickery.

It read: "We are campaigning against something which really affects our future. The poor pension system in Austria.

"We wanted to get people talking about something. Discussing. Together we can make a difference. We can influence things. Even politics."

Apparently 600 genuine people had registered for the school. They are likely to be deflated when BirdBase informs them they will not begin their sex studies in the new year.

Even in Thompson’s own words, it was all too good to be true.

“I wasn’t surprised it got so much attention. Sex still sells,” she told Sweden's Resumé magazine on Monday.

“I think many in the media figured ‘if a story sounds too good to be true, don’t check it too carefully’. They wanted the story regardless,"

The Sex School is the second very public campaign of The BirdBase.

In November, it distributed a book by Franz Kafka amongst school pupils in Vienna full of spelling and grammar mistakes to highlight the poor education of youngsters.