Developments in the last few weeks – which we list below – provide a microcosm of some of the tensions that currently exist between those who misapply religious arguments to try and deny or delay when schools teach Sex and Relationships Education, and the popular support that exists for the thorough provision of the subject. The examples reinforce – in Accord’s view – the pressing need for Government to ensure all pupils at state funded schools receive high quality SRE, and that schools be required to promote an acceptance of sexual diversity and transgendered people so that efforts to tackle prejudice are not undermined.
The chair of Ofsted, Sir Michael Wilshaw, has revealed that head teachers of Birmingham schools implicated in 2014’s so called ‘Trojan Horse’ scandal have reported an ‘organised resistance to the personal, social and health education (PSHE) curriculum and the promotion of equality’. The claim was made in an open letter in July to the Secretary of State for Education highlighting Sir Michael’s wider concerns about some local authorities failing to uphold their responsibilities for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all children and young people in their area.
The Pope has meanwhile drawn criticism for comments made earlier this month and reported in international media that attempt to delegitimize the acceptance of transgendered people by schools. Pope Francis described those schools that accepted people self-identifying their gender as engaging in ‘ideological colonizing’ and were, according to his predecessor Pope Benedict, committing a ‘sin again God’. Homophobia at schools in England has long been identified as worse within the faith school sector.
In contrast, survey findings published last month by the HIV and sexual health charity, the Terrence Higgins Trust, have revealed overwhelming support from young people for the provision of inclusive and thorough SRE in schools. The Trust’s survey of 914 16 to 25 year olds found that 99% believed age-appropriate SRE should be taught in all schools, but that one in seven reported that they did not receive any SRE during their own schooling. The survey found that only 5% of the young people were taught about LGBT sex and relationships. 97% of respondents thought all SRE should be LGBT-inclusive and 91% thought trans awareness should be taught.
Chair of the Accord Coalition for Inclusive Education, Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain, said ‘Sex and Relationships Education remains at risk of being hijacked by those who wish to delay when information surrounding human reproduction is presented or who seek to make others conform to artificial notions of gender and sexual orientation. There are varying religious interpretations about matters of gender and sexuality, and though schools cannot discriminate on these grounds under the Equality Act 2010, the Act does not extend to the content of a school’s curriculum.
‘The Government should finally heed public sentiment, evidence and expert opinion, and give all pupils an entitlement to thorough SRE. However, it is crucial that in doing so all schools be required to provide SRE that is balanced, accurate and which promotes a tolerance of sexual diversity and transgendered people. Such requirements should trump other considerations.’
Notes
An April 2014 YovGov survey commissioned by the Jewish Chronicle found that people believed faith schools should not be freed from any requirements to provide sex education by 82% to 9% – a ratio of more than nine to one.
Personal, Social and Health education (PSHE) includes Sex and Relationship Education (SRE). The only mandatory teaching in this area in England and Wales are cursory requirements for Sex Education for secondary schools still maintained by local authorities. How and the extent to which it is provided relies on the discretion of individual schools.
Ofsted’s most recent report into PSHE, entitled ‘Not yet good enough: personal, social, health and economic education in schools’ and published in 2012, found that PSHE required improvement or was inadequate in 40% of schools. It found that at 20% of schools staff had received little or no training to teach PSHE education, and that many teachers lacked expertise in teaching sensitive and controversial issues, which resulted in some topics such as sexuality, mental health and domestic violence being omitted. The report highlighted concern that a lack of high-quality, age-appropriate Sex and Relationships Education in schools may leave children and young people vulnerable to inappropriate sexual behaviours and sexual exploitation.
Stonewall’s 2007 ‘The School Report‘ showed that two thirds of young gay people at secondary schools had experienced homophobic bullying, but in faith schools that figure rose to three in four. The report showed lesbian and gay pupils who attended faith schools were 23% less likely to report bullying than those at non-faith schools. A follow up report published in 2012 by Stonewall found there had been an improvement, but with schools in the faith sector still less likely to take steps to prevent and respond to homophobic bullying than non-faith schools.
