Health

Parents to 'have no say' on sex education in schools

by LotusFlower | July 19, 2009 at 11:21 pm

605 views | 28 Recommendations | 7 comments

The UK Family Education Trust has issued a report that claims that parents will have no say in their children's sex education under plans by the British government to introduce compulsory sex and relationships education (SRE).

They issue the report just as the consultation on the new Personal, Social and Health Education curriculum draws to an end and which contains within it the plans for compulsory SRE.

Educationalists have been asking for PSHE to be made compulsory for years but a few organisations including some religious and right of centre groups feel that making sex education compulsory from age five is a step too far.

Britain has one of the highest rates of teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections in young people in the western world and the proposed new curriculum has been welcomed by those who see poor education as one of the main reasons for such high rates.

Under the proposed plans schools will have to deliver sex and relationships education from age five in line with the published statutory National Curriculum but parents will have the right to remove their children from certain lessons.

The public consultation continues to the end of this week.

Parents will be given barely any say in the content of sex education classes under Government plans to make the subject compulsory for children as young as five, a report warns today.

Schools are currently free to draw up their own policies on sex education and are obliged to consult parents.

But proposals unveiled by Children's Secretary Ed Balls earlier this year to make the subject mandatory in primary and secondary schools will inevitably limit parents' influence, says a report from the Family Education Trust.

0 See all footage | View Slideshow

Share: email story | add to any | | facebook | stumbleupon

recommend This comment thread is now closed

Paschen

at 03:41 on July 20th, 2009

Well, they do have a say with their vote in the elections and they could make it an issue should would they believe it to be of importance to them.

Beaulieu

at 22:29 on August 3rd, 2009

Unfortunately there is no proportional representation in the UK, so there is no guarantee a vote will actually count. Mine hasn't for 30 years.

Anonymously Given (not verified)

at 04:36 on July 20th, 2009

Here in the U.S., we don't directly have any input into the operations of the department of education except, as Paschen writes, "through the ballot". (He resides in Japan? ... but apparently lives with the same working rules)

While it is probably a good thing to have a republic versus a real democracy, it only works very well if many or most of the people exercise their voting rights, and those rights are respected.

The voting public usually doesn't have much "say" in the implementation details of any legislation, but instead is given the opportunity to say "I like this one", or "I don't like that one", etc.

That really boils down to a practicality problem. The best we can do is oust the people who provide the unsatisfactory implementations ...

LotusFlower

at 07:03 on July 20th, 2009

And in this case there is some choice - with all other subjects in the curriculum that are 'statutory' - part of the National Curriculum - parents cannot remove their children from the lessons but in the case of SRE they will be able to - the Government wants to have its cake and eat it - they appease the the overwhelming numbers of teachers and others that want compulsory Personal, Socoal and Health Education (with SRE within it) but allow parents to withdraw their kids if they want to - ha! - so not compulsory for kids to attend it but for schools to provide it...

Guy Bauman (not verified)

at 12:34 on July 21st, 2009

Sex education in school is just wrong! A girl should learn about sex from her loving father in the privacy of their own bed

Beaulieu

at 22:58 on August 3rd, 2009

We learn it from a mixture of sources - parents (if they can be bothered), schools, books and now the internet. I had ultra religious parents so it was a challenge, if not impossible, to get any information at all. It was either books or school (which was a bit late at 14). Then, of course, there were 'alternative ways' of getting information such as finding a heap of magazines, left by lorry drivers, shoved in our field by the road (oh, the sex education of a farmer's daughter!) and Middle Eastern lodgers, who had a 'supply of dodgy magazines'. Of course, being a teenager you hunt for as much info as you can because you often cannot rely on parents or schools giving you 'real sex information'. If my parents had a say in sex education, I wouldn't get any info at at all.

I had a male teacher dealing with our 'pathetic' sex education which I remember was 'uncomfortable' for us and for him too (he kept on going red). Sex education could be given by professional people such as a nurse, with books, who has confidence and experience, preferably of the same sex. I think the harrowing film clips of childbirth in my sex education, gave me nightmares for days and I have never been interested in having kids after that. Maybe they showed us the worst video on 'purpose'!