Sex education in schools: too much too young?

Education Secretary Gillian Keegan has demanded schools provide parents with access to relationships, sex and health curriculum materials, as the debate over sex education in English schools rages on. 

In a letter addressed to schools in England, Keegan said she wanted to "debunk the copyright myth that parents cannot see what their children are being taught". At the same time, Keegan has also written to parents to inform them of their "fundamental right to know what your children are being taught about healthy relationships, sex and development in school".

The letters come after a yet-to-be-published review into relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) was announced in March amid concerns that children are being exposed to "inappropriate" content.

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'Wild West of third-party sex education providers'

Keegan's letter to schools is welcome, but the Department for Education "still doesn’t grasp the seriousness of the situation", said Clare Page in The Spectator. Page is a campaigner on the issue who recently lost a legal battle to force her daughter's school to share the sex education materials it had used in a class where she had been taught that "heteronormativity" was a "bad thing" and that she should be "sex positive" towards relationships. 

"What is needed is an amendment to the Education Act to include the obligation that schools only use resources which are published, citable and open to public and regulatory scrutiny," argued Page. "This is, after all, the basis of proper academia and supports free speech and thought, and I believe it is the necessary path to retain public trust in schooling."

Indeed, there have been "too many examples" of "shocking" RSHE materials that contain "graphic and sexualised content that is deeply inappropriate for children", argued Conservative MP Miriam Cates in The Telegraph. The prevalence of these "dreadful materials" seems to have increased since 2019, when compulsory RSHE was introduced in schools. And a lack of "clear guidance" has "opened the door to a Wild West of third-party sex education 'providers'" to sell their content into the classroom, she argued. 

'They can handle the real stuff'

"Many teachers are confused by the idea that kids are learning too much," when it comes to sex education, said Beth Ashley in Glamour. Indeed, the educational material currently used in schools can be "a bit patronising" and unclear, one teacher told the magazine. 

"Honestly, most 14 and 15-year-olds in our school are already thinking about sex. Children watch porn at an extremely young age, for God's sake. They know what sex is. They don't need metaphors and jokes. They can handle the real stuff," said a RSHE teacher at a school in England. 

Indeed, while many who are opposed to "honest and comprehensive sex education" argue that these lessons make young people more vulnerable, "the opposite is true", said Fiona Katauskas in The Guardian. "It's empowering to know the proper names for genitalia and to understand puberty, sex and sexuality," said Katauskas. "In places where such education is denied, sexual experimentation doesn't stop, and rates of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections are much higher."