Prime Minister Announces Fast Track Review Amid Claims of ‘Extreme Sexualised’ Lessons

A teacher and her students in a class in England on Sept. 12, 2018. (Ben Birchall/PA)

The British government is to review how relationships and sex education are being taught in schools, following concerns from MPs that children are being exposed to “extreme, sexualising” content.

On Wednesday during Prime Minister’s Questions, Rishi Sunak said he asked the Department for Education (DfE) to “ensure that schools are not teaching inappropriate or contested content” in Relationships, Sex, and Health Education (RSHE).

“Our priority should always be the safety and wellbeing of children and schools should also make curriculum content and materials available to parents,” he said.

“As a result of all of this, we are bringing forward a review of RSHE statutory guidance and we will start our consultation as soon as possible,” he added.

Graphic Lessons

Conservative MP Miriam Cates raised the issue and said that pupils were being subjected to relationships and sex education classes that are “age inappropriate, extreme, sexualising, and inaccurate.”

Cates called on Sunak to commission an independent inquiry to “end inappropriate sex education.”

“Graphic lessons on oral sex, how to choke your partner safely, and 72 genders. This is what passes for relationships and sex education in British schools,” she said.

“Across the country, children are being subjected to lessons that are age inappropriate, extreme, sexualising and inaccurate, often using resources from unregulated organisations that are actively campaigning to undermine parents,” she added.

“This is not a victory for equality, it is a catastrophe for childhood,” said Cates.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “We believe children should be supported to make informed decisions and those need to be factually based and age appropriate.

“So the PM has asked for the Department of Education to look at some of the issues raised by the MPs in the letter to him to make sure all schools are compliant with existing guidance.”

He stressed “clear guidance” already exists on external speakers and resources “and that’s something that we want the review to look at.”

The DfE will also conduct a consultation later this year, he said.

Sex Education Providers

Cates, a former biology teacher, has for the past year been bringing up the issue that children as young as six are being introduced to “indoctrinating, graphic, and extreme sexual material” from sex education providers.

Last year, she named some of the providers. One said that sex is defined as, “anything that makes you horny or aroused.“ Another tells children they fall into one of two groups ”menstruators or non-menstruators.”

Another company had materials that involved the discussion of violent sexual acts.

Reacting to the review, James Bowen, director of policy for the school leaders’ union NAHT, said: “It is hard to be anything other than deeply concerned by this announcement.

“The overwhelming majority of schools are doing nothing more than following the Government’s own statutory guidance when it comes to relationships and sex education.

“It is worth remembering that the current curriculum was subject to extensive consultation before it was introduced.

“We have seen no evidence to suggest there is a widespread problem with pupils being presented with age-inappropriate materials and if this were the situation, we would expect it to have been picked up on a case-by-case basis.

“There is a real concern that this is a politically motivated review, rather than one based on the reality of what is happening in the vast majority of schools up and down the country.

“Our appeal to Government is to ensure this review is now handled with the care, sensitivity, and impartiality it requires and to listen carefully to the most important voices—those of education professionals and pupils.”

Wales

In December, Welsh parent campaigners Public Child Protection Wales (PCPW) lost a judicial review to overturn Wales’s Labour-led administration’s compulsory RSE lessons for pupils aged 3–16 years.

The Welsh government says that RSE is “designed to safeguard all our children and young people, supporting them to develop knowledge, skills, and behaviours that will assist in protecting them throughout their lives and enhance their well-being,” and that it is “age and developmentally appropriate.”

RSE has entirely removed the word “sex” from its curriculum along with the terms “male,” “female,” “boys,” and “girls.”

Children will also learn about “relationships, rights, equity, sex, gender, sexuality, bodies, body image, sexual health, well-being as well as violence, safety, and support.”

PCPW called RSE “indoctrination” and was concerned that the judgment did not take into account that the Welsh government sought RSE guidance from an academic inspired by “feminist, queer, and new materialist posthumanist” theory.

At the time, the ruling was welcomed by teaching unions and the NSPCC. Welsh education minister Jeremy Miles also welcomed the ruling and said RSE was intended to “keep children safe and to promote respect and healthy relationships.”

PA Media contributed to this report.