Lucy
Emmerson | guardian.co.uk
| Thursday 24 January 2013 12.26 GMT
Photograph: Veer/Getty Images |
A year-old
campaign is calling for good quality lessons that explain more than just the
biology of puberty and reproduction
Sex
education has mattered to a lot of people for a long time. This
year, the Sex
Education Forum hosted by the National Children's
Bureau, celebrates 25 years since its launch. SEF was born with eight members,
including three religious organisations. Journalists were sceptical that we
would agree on much and certainly not about teaching topics such as
homosexuality and abortion. Teachers, however, responded enthusiastically,
expressing their feelings of isolation and frustration at the lack of support
for their work.
Over the years people have argued
that sex education must be more than just the biology of puberty and
reproduction, and must look at the real life context too – ie relationships. So
SEF and others have called for compulsory sex and relationships education (SRE)
to be taught to all children and young
people from primary schools
upwards.
One young person told us sex
education matters because "without it, we'd still be giggling uncomfortably
whenever anything to do with sex is mentioned". The word "sex"
seems to be a problem, but it shouldn't be. Sexuality
is an intrinsic part of being human and sexual development is a normal part of
growing up. Some primary
schools call the topic "growing up" and this can be more meaningful
to young children and more comfortable for adults. It doesn't matter what it is
called as long as it is happening, and by "it" we mean learning about
family, friendships, staying safe, healthy relationships, puberty, sexual
health and more.
Sex education matters in primary
schools because four-year-olds ask where babies come from, five-year-olds
browse the internet and six-year-olds want to be popular with their friends.
Sex education matters at home because children want their parents to be the
first people to talk to them about growing up, sex and relationships. Yet many
parents say they lack confidence to answer their children's questions frankly.
Sex education matters in secondary
schools especially because this is a time when young people come
under new pressures from their peers and are reaching for more independence and
considering their own views on love, romance and what is acceptable or
unacceptable for them.
Today, the consensus of support for
SRE is bigger and broader than ever before. SEF represents diverse voices from
more than 75 religious, family, youth, disability, health and education
organisations. All our member organisations believe sex education matters. For
example, Kids, a charity working with young disabled people, joined SEF because
clients said their experiences of SRE were "too late" and they were
"talked at rather than listened to".
Around 20,000 young people took the
time to answer a UK youth parliament survey about
SRE; more than a third said their SRE was "bad" or "very
bad". That was in 2008 and young people are still saying the same today.
There are signs that SRE is
improving but progress is too slow and too patchy. In some primary schools the
only SRE is one lesson about puberty taught in the summer term before moving to
secondary school and sometimes that will be for the girls only. In other areas
primary and secondary schools have worked together to plan a comprehensive curriculum
that grows with the child and builds vocabulary and knowledge at an appropriate
pace.
It is encouraging that MPs from all
parties attended a recent Westminster Hall debate to talk about personal,
social, health and economic (PSHE) education with loud support for making
relationships education part of every child's learning. Ann Coffey MP said
"the knowledge that PSHE gives children will help prevent further Rochdale
and Jimmy Savile scandals" and she is right. The evidence shows that young
people who have had comprehensive SRE that starts early and is taught by
trained educators are more likely to have sex for the first time at an older
age, with a partner of a similar age and use contraception.
To highlight the consensus that sex
education matters and to press for the political support needed to get good
quality SRE in all classrooms, we are running 12 months of online discussion
and debate.
(Lucy Emmerson is co-ordinator of the
Sex Education Forum)