evangelical alliance, uniting to change society
(object placeholder)
Evangelical Alliance Whitefield House, 186 Kennington Park Road, London SE11 4BT Tel 020 7207 2100
*

In the News
In this regular feature the Alliance looks at a significant news story of interest to evangelicals and invites readers to comment.
Follow the links for selected stories and opinions from the world's media.

23 February 2010

Sex education amendment to protect faith schools raises controversy

In a move that some have been calling a "u-turn", Schools Secretary Ed Balls has tabled an amendment to his Children, Schools and Families bill to allow faith schools to teach sex and relationships education (SRE) in accordance with their faith.  Last autumn he confirmed that as of next year all pupils will be required to take sex education classes and that their parents won't be able to pull them out if they desire.

But the current amendment, which is being debated in the House of Commons, reinforces what Balls promised after last autumn's announcement: that faith schools will be allowed to keep a religious ethos in the lessons and maintain the "tenets of their faith." Critics have accused Balls of "watering down" the overall purpose of the bill, which is to require all schools to teach sex education in respect of equality and diversity. In his defence Balls claimed that this amendment does not change the fact that faith schools have to teach the facts and also other views on sexual relationships. But he wanted to reassure faith schools that they can still teach sex education from their faith perspective.

Trevor Cooling, Director of the Transforming Lives Project and Forum for Change Education cluster host, said, "The important thing about this amendment is that the Government has recognised that you can't adopt a neutral approach to sex education because it always raises issues of beliefs and values. You cannot teach sex education without a framework of beliefs and values, and it's very important that church schools are allowed to set their teaching within this framework."

Dan Boucher, Director of Parliamentary Affairs for CARE, said, ""The amendment does placate faith schools, but the ability for them to teach things that are consistent with their faith was never in doubt. In contrast to the media focus on faith schools, the real issue is the fact that the SRE curriculum for everyone is going to be determined centrally rather than giving parents the option of informing school governors on the SRE curriculum in any school that their children attend, faith or otherwise."

 

News links

Times: Balls defends last minute 'U-turn' on sex education

Daily Mail: Government accused of watering down sex education laws in favour of faith schools

BBC: Sex education 'not watered down' says Ed Balls

Evening Standard: Ed Balls to let faith schools teach 'homosexuality is wrong'

Politics.co.uk: Homophobia fears as 'sex ed' law watered down

Times comment: Analysis - politics prevails in the sex education debate

Channel 4: Balls denies watering down sex education bill


Latest comments :
(The views below are the authors', and not necessarily those of the Evangelical Alliance.)

Written by Simon Icke on 24 February 2010 at 12.22
I would like to add to my previous comment:

Parents should be given advanced notice as to when these sex education lessons are going to be given and to know in detail exactly what their children are going to be taught and by whom. If they don't feel comfortable with the content or the teacher they should exercise their right to withdraw their child from such lessons; without any pressure being brought to bear on the parent or the child.
Written by Simon Icke on 23 February 2010 at 22.53
I think it is totally wrong to start talking specifics about sex education until at least 11 years old. Children should be children for as long as possible and should be allowed to mature in their own time. The parents are in the best position to judge when a child is in nearing puberty or ready to be gentle introduced into the adult world.

I have brought up four sons and as a father I taught them about the facts of life within a Christian context.
What qualifies primary school teachers to talk about sex to such young children? what training have they had/ What about their own morals? I have met many young teachers in my life both male and female and some of them have been brazen in talking about their promiscuous sex lives. Would Christian parents want such people speaking to their young children about sex?
It seems to me that the State is trying to take over the role of parents. They are operating on one size fits all and to the lowest common denominator assuming all children must be taught in the same way, even though some children have responsible Christian, Catholic, Muslim etc parents who feel confident in the way they are bringing up their children without interference from the State or teachers who could be morally or emotionally messed up themselves; through their own bad sexual experiences that has damaged them.

Comments for this article are now closed


Subscribe to for those comments!
 

Copyright Evangelical Alliance 2006 - 2012 ©

Date Created: 23 February 2010
Last Modified: 23 February 2010

The Evangelical Alliance.
A company limited by guarantee Registered in England & Wales No. 123448.
Registered Charity No England and Wales: 212325 , Scotland: SC040576.
Registered Office: Whitefield House, 186 Kennington Park Road, London, SE11 4BT

External links:
The Evangelical Alliance can
accept no responsibility for the
content of external sites

*Share/Subscribe is a free one-step sharing/subscribing tool that makes sharing/subscribing online hassle free. (Administered by AddThis.com - for details visit: www.addthis.com)