No Compulsory Sex Education
posted: 08/04/2010
A string of key education reforms – including compulsory sex education that deals with HIV and sexuality for 15 and 16 year-olds – were dropped after the Conservatives refused to back them.
Ministers tried to push as much of the Children, Schools and Families bill as they could through parliament before the general election. But most of the proposals were cut out because the two political parties could not agree.
The shelved reforms include a move to make sex education compulsory for pupils aged 15 and 16, even if their parents objected.
Sex, relationships and HIV
Schools would have had to teach about contraception and the importance of stable relationships, including marriage and civil partnerships. Faith schools would have been free, as now, to express their religious views, but would have had to teach the national sex and relationships curriculum.
Mandatory sex education in schools would have helped reduce unwanted pregnancies and infections. It would also have corrected misleading notions about sex that teenagers sometimes pick up.
"There was massive support for its implementation from health professionals, teachers, parents and young people themselves. The loss of these subjects as core parts of the curriculum is catastrophic," said Andrew Copson, chief executive of the British Humanist Association.
A Conservative spokesman said: "We supported having better sex education, but the government insisted on removing parents' rights to withdraw their children from classes they thought damaging. We think parents must have such a right".
Disgraceful betrayal of young
Charities went further and said it was a "disgraceful betrayal of the next generation".
Lisa Power, policy director of the Terrence Higgins Trust, said: "The government does not have an excuse that they did not know the date that the election was coming. We will see the impact on young people who haven't had decent sex and relationships education: the girl who gets pregnant because the only education she got was in the playground, the people who use the word 'gay' as an insult. It's a disgraceful betrayal of the next generation. There's been very widespread agreement that young people need better sex and relationships education."
Julie Bentley, chief executive of the Family Planning Association, said: "We were on the verge of witnessing a historic breakthrough in the sexual health education of children and young people in England.
Balls said: "There is now widespread agreement that statutory PSHE (personal, social, health, and economic education) is essential to prepare young people for adult life, and our reforms would ensure that by reducing the age of parental opt-out to 15, all children receive at least one year of compulsory sex and relationship education. This is a very significant setback, which will deny many young people proper and balanced sex and relationship education."
Source - Sex and Relationship Education proposals dropped
Source - Sexual health charities' dismay at loss of compulsory sex and relationship education
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