Should five-year-olds have sex classes?
Margaret Hodge #MargaretHodge
by STEVE DOUGHTY, Daily Mail
Children as young as five should have compulsory sex education, says a report by Government advisers.
They claim their controversial proposal is the only way to reduce Britain’s high number of teenage pregnancies.
Their work has the support of Children’s Minister Margaret Hodge – but critics say it encourages very young children to experiment sexually.
Parents will be worried about precisely what their sons and daughters will learn under the umbrella of ‘sex and relationships education’.
The Children’s Minister is already facing demands to quit the job she was handed in last month’s Cabinet reshuffle because of her record in failing to crackdown on child abuse.
Paedophile rings flourished in children’s homes in Islington in the 1980s and early 1990s while Mrs Hodge was council leader in the North London borough.
The report on sex education was prepared by the Independent Advisory Group on Teenage Pregnancy, which reports to Mrs Hodge.
The group, led by Lady Winifred Tumim, said parents and young people ‘strongly endorse’ sex education in secondary schools and acknowledge the positive impact it can have in improving sexual health.
“We are disappointed that this new confidence in many secondary schools is not reflected in primary schools, particularly considering evidence of earlier pubertal changes,” the report declared.
“It is important that primary schools recognise sex and relationships education as an important part of personal, social and health education and citizenship.”
Lessons on sex, sexuality, emotions, relationships and sexual health are currently ‘discretionary’ for primary schools.
But sociologist Patricia Morgan, a leading authority on teenage pregnancy and single parenthood, said: “I wonder when they think children are going to start to have sexual relations. It seems extreme to think that primary school children are going to have sex.”
She said she was ‘deeply sceptical’ over claims that sex education had contributed to a fall in teenage pregnancies. They have been falling in many Western nations.
She warned that sex education in primary schools could put even more pressure on girls to have sex.
Guidelines from the Department for Education and Skills says primary schools should have sex education that is tailored to the physical and emotional maturity of the children.
But the new report had eight recommendations which included the idea that sex education should now ‘form part of the statutory curriculum at all key stages’.
Mrs Hodge said: “We will be pursuing the advisory group’s eight recommendations for future work.”
s.doughty@dailymail.co.uk
The vote effectively marks the end of Section 28 – the law banning promotion of homosexuality in schools.
Peers made a last-ditch attempt to stop the repeal of Section 28, proposing instead that parents have the right to vet their children’s sex education through ballots on the materials used.
The Lords have successfully blocked its repeal in the past, but this time they voted 180 to 130 to scrap it.
Homosexual activists detest Section 28 of the 1988 Local Government Bill, enacted by the Thatcher government to stop councils pushing gay propaganda.
It is due to be scrapped under the Local Government Bill. Tony Blair first tried to repeal it three years ago but the Lords blocked his efforts.
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