Relationship and Sex Education
Relationship and sex education is a subject on the national curriculum that was introduced in 2020.
It is taught as a part of PSHE, it was added in part to tackle the rising issue of bad pupil behaviour in schools and to teach health and safety to children.
The government’s rationale can be seen here.
Chapter 4 of the Children and Social Care Act 2017 made provisions for Relationship and Sex Education as part of PSHE.
It was added as an amendment which seems to have been debated on the 7th of March 2017, only one month before the bill gained Royal Assent.
The Children and Social Work Act was designed to be specific to children in care but all children go to school and learn the national curriculum, such a far-reaching amendment that effects all children should not of been added and debated at such a late stage of the Bill’s progression in the House of Parliament.
I agree that there are many health and safety issues that children face in the modern world but Education and Health/Social Care are two different areas so any change to the national curriculum should be included in its own Act not as an amendment to another one.
The rationale document also mentions giving schools flexibility to develop their own planned programme, this just adds further burden to schools and in reality means that schools employ the services of external providers as the schools are either too busy or do not know how to ‘develop their own planned programme’.
There is an inconsistency with how PSHE is delivered, it is not a main subject with materials provided by examining boards, schools are left on their own and this has led to part-privatisation whereby schools purchase materials from private providers, some schools out-source entirely and some schools have taken to employing the services of Drag Queens who read to children, this has also led to the degrading of parental rights with a lack of transparency as these organisations guard their Intellectual Property denying parents the right to know what their child is being taught.
This is an example of how government has lost control of PSHE.
In fact PSHE has been described as a ‘Wild West’, it is unregulated and any organisation can set themselves up as a provider.
Contested social theories such as Critical Race Theory and Toxic Masculinity have been introduced into schools by private companies that have produced materials on them.
It is not the nature of these contested theories themselves, it is the fact that they have been introduced into schools by private companies. It should be up to democratic elected politicians to debate and decide what is taught in schools, not private companies.
I believe in a standardise education system where all children are taught towards a set standard and therefore all have equal opportunities, inconsistency and part-privatisation goes against this.
In March 2024, Relationship and Sex Education was discussed in parliament. I believe it would be helpful to put my concerns of part-privatisation to members and I will certainly open these discussions if I were to enter parliament.
Recently the National Education Union voted to promote Drag Queen events in schools, it seems that they are following a social theory that seeks to challenge the ‘heteronormative culture and curriculum that dominates education’.
This is yet further demonstrates how many in the education system have become distracted and have lost focus.
School Attendance Crisis
The think tank: Centre for Social Justice released a report on school attendance: The Missing Link: Restoring the bond between schools and families.
In my view, PSHE and Relationship and Sex Education contribute to lower school attendance.
The report mentions Covid lockdowns, and it is true that lockdowns have had an effect on children’s confidence, but lockdowns aren't the only thing to happen since 2020.
Many children are frustrated at school and this subject could add to those frustrations, so it is quite possible that children are skipping school on the days in which they have these lessons.
Indeed, as I pointed above, if children have suffered socially due to lockdowns and are timid about returning to school then drag queens and other such inappropriate materials might cause them more anxiety and discourage them from returning.
Conclusion
I believe that the introduction of RSE was a mistake, it has been described as a ‘social experiment’ on children.
Parents and children, of course, have a right to a private life and must be confident of what their child is taught in school, otherwise the trust with that school will break down.
The government has recently announced a ban on schools teaching children about gender identity but this ban is only guidelines and ‘no explicit discussions of sexual acts until they are 13 and over’ would not prevent registered charities from teaching older children about masturbation.
I believe that PSHE should be incorporated into the main subjects and ethics could be taught as apart of Religious Education instead of RSE.
Immigration Riots
