UK Sex Education Laws Bow to Religious Lobbyists
The inevitable has happened, and the government has bowed to pressure and lobbying by the Catholic Church. The UK House of Commons has passed the amendment to the Children, Schools and Families Bill that allows faith schools to alter their teaching of sex education.
As part of the bill, by 2011 all children will receive compulsory sex education classes that include discussion of divorce, contraception, same sex relationships and civil partnerships. This seemed like a sensible contribution to education in this country that would provide children with a balanced view and would help with issues such as teenage pregnancy, homophobia and misogyny.
However after lobbying from the Catholic Education Service, an amendment was tacked on and passed in the House of Commons yesterday that allowed for the teaching of sex education to be able to reflect a school’s religious character.
This doesn’t sound particularly awful in itself and I do not want a ban on any religious beliefs in schools, I just think this amendment offers too much free reign to faith schools to teach what they like. (Although I do feel that religion should be a choice made by people who have been exposed to all possibilities rather than force fed from birth.)
The implications are quite worrying and the justifications of Ed Balls, the UK Schools Secretary, do not ease these worries. He claims that a Catholic school would have to teach contraception but would be at liberty to say that their beliefs dictate that it is wrong.
In my eyes, telling 14 year olds that homosexuality exists but is a sin is not a way to discourage homophobia, nor does it seem like they type of amendment that a liberal democratic government should be passing in 2010.
We can at least be grateful that our esteemed parliament spent time debating this important issue though. Our elected leaders took the effort to decide upon the best course of action for the sexual and social education of all children in this country. Actually they didn’t, as apparently there was a lack of time. Oh well, they just voted to prolong draconian views of contraception and homosexuality.
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