No modern sex and relationship education
Today the UK Government failed to accept any of the recommendations made by the Education Select Committee on how to improve personal, social, health and economic education.
PSHE isn’t a complicated process. It teaches young people about sex and relationships, gender identity, LGBT issues and mental health and emotional wellbeing. All pretty essential topics we think you’ll agree.
The committee wanted “PSHE to be made compulsory in all schools and that compulsory guidance for schools – which currently dates back to 2000 – be updated ensuring PSHE is inclusive of same-sex relationships – the Government’s response failed to accept this.”
Deborah Gold, Chief Executive, NAT (National AIDS Trust), says: “The Government’s refusal to give all young people in this country an equal access to information is creating a two-tier education system. Depending which school you happen to go to, you may or may not have access to good sex and relationships education and you may or may not learn how to protect yourself from getting HIV in real-life situations– this is a violation of the human rights of many young people.
“One in five people in the UK don’t know you can get HIV from sex without a condom. Our research found three-quarters of gay and bisexual young men don’t receive any information about same-sex relationships at school, at the same time new HIV diagnosis amongst this group have doubled over the past ten years. Sex education in the UK is not working and the Select Committee has reported it is getting worse. Only by making PSHE and SRE statutory and relevant to all young people, regardless of sexual orientation or identity, will we start to address the shockingly low levels of understanding about HIV and see the static numbers of new HIV infections go down.”
You can read the full report of recommendations from the Education Select Committee here. And we will of course keep you updated as this story develops.
Image Harry Lawford Via Flikr
Words Josh Withey, @josh_withey