UK Schools Secretary Ed Balls Photo By The Daily Mail-LondonToday Balls confirmed that key portions of his schools Bill had been stripped out entirely so that he could push through the legislation before Parliament rises - a period known as the 'wash-up.' In a letter he wrote to his Tory counterpart Michael Gove, arguing on behalf of the legislation Balls stated:
"Our reforms would ensure that by reducing the age of parental opt-out to 15, all children receive at least one year of compulsory sex and relationship education."
Speaking to a crowd of reporters outside Number 10 Downing Street, Secretary Balls remarked:
"This is a very significant setback, which will deny many young people proper and balanced sex and relationships education."
Reaction came swiftly from those advocating support for the bill's provisions, as well as those in the opposition, at Secretary Balls' announcement. The LGBT Charity Stonewall UK today expressed deep regret at the removal of statutory relationship and sex education from the Children, Schools and Families Bill, as Parliament prepares to dissolve for the election. Derek Munn, Stonewall’s Public Affairs Director, said:
"This is a regressive step. Personal, Social and Health Education is invaluable in providing young people with an education that reflects the reality and diversity of modern Britain. We’d previously welcomed the timely move towards statutory PSHE for all state-maintained schools. Taught well, PSHE – including sex and relationship education - empowers young people to make informed decisions about their personal well-being. No young person should be denied this. We’ll be calling on the next Government to revisit this as a matter of urgency."
Lisa Power, from the HIV and sexual health charity Terrence Higgins Trust said:
"It's a disgraceful betrayal of the next generation. This isn't just about sex - it's about relationships, it's about bullying, it's about a whole raft of things."
Ms. Power also claimed it could lead to more homophobic bullying.
"We will see the impact on young people who haven't had decent sex and relationships education. The girl who gets pregnant because the only education she got was in the playground, the people who use the word 'gay' as an insult," she said."This isn't just about sex – it's about relationships, it's about bullying, it's about a whole raft of things."
One of the groups leading the opposition, Norman Wells, Director of the Family Education Trust, said:
"Parents have been increasingly sidelined and effectively told they must bring up their children by government dictates. It is time for politicians from all parties to start showing parents more respect and to recognise that the family is a private institution, not an arm of the state."
Margaret Morrisey, spokesperson for the organisation Parent Outloud, added;
"The majority of parents prefer to speak to their children about sex and relationships in their own time, in their own way and in their own language. They would have lost that right."
A Conservative Party spokesman said:
"This bill would have meant a great new wave of bureaucracy swamping schools and it is good news that it has collapsed – teachers will breathe a sigh of relief. "
Other provisos that Secretary Ball removed from the bill included plans to make parents sign so-called 'behaviour' contracts with schools and to force parents who educate their children at home to register with local councils. Also a guarantee of one-to-one tuition for pupils who fall behind in English and maths has also been dropped along with school report cards - which would have graded institutions on a range of criteria such as exam performance and pupil behaviour.
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1 comments:
To understand whether this is significant one needs a good understanding of a Labour government.
For the past 13 years the UK has turned into a highly regulated surveillance society. Teachers are not teachers so much as factory workers whose job is to achieve the goals of the management and government, not really to teach children. Schools have to achieve targets to win places in league tables.
Teachers do not have lives. Working until 11pm with a working day starting at 7:30am is not unusual. Exhaustion and burnout is the norm. Yet anther damned task is imposisble.
Putting party politics into play now, with an election here in four weeks, the Conservatives have to show that they are stripping away bureaucracy. To have a chance of winning, and we need them to win in the same way that the USA needed to be free from the Republicans, they must oppose everything the labour government does in the next four weeks, and they must strip out regulation where it is not required.
I'm a parent. My job was to give my child an education in the relationship aspect of sex. The mechanical aspects were covered in lessons, but also by my wife and me in quiet and peaceful discussions. We covered heterosexuality, homosexuality, love, commitment, and yes, the one night stand!
It was our job.
I would absolutely not have appreciated a teacher doing this job 'for' me. I make no apology for not trusting adults in sexual discussion with children. Look at the Roman Catholic Church and the global child sexual abuse scandal that ought to destroy it.
I support the removal of this extra piece of government intrusion from the bill.
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