Where the government decides what your child should learn about sex
by Elizabeth Francis, The Conservative Woman:
PARENTS in Wales should brace themselves: the Welsh Government is one step away from transferring the right of parents to decide their child’s best interests about sex and religious education to the State. Legal reforms aim to hand over the decision about what is appropriate to the maturity and development of children to the government and schools – to the exclusion of parents, and without their consent.
A Bill aiming to widen the mandatory curriculum for all schools, including faith schools, is imminently due to become law in Wales, having passed all debate stages. Religious Education has been re-framed as ‘Religion, Values and Ethics’ (RVE) for secular and atheistic philosophical perspectives to be taught on par with mainstream religious education, and a Relationships and Sex Education Code (‘RSE Code’) has been introduced to broaden sex education themes and content.
Significantly, the Bill removes the previous statutory right of parents to opt their children out of these classes if they consider it appropriate to do so.
Wales’s example follows recent changes in England. The Department for Education’s statutory guidance for Relationships Education and Sex Education (‘RSE’) requires all schools in England to integrate new relationships and sexual content into entire curriculums, as well as within PSHE (Personal, Social, Health and Economic) lessons, by the summer term.
English RSE also significantly alters parental rights of opt-out.
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