MP continues Labour crusade for compulsory sex education

Labour MP, Chris Bryant, is continuing his party’s controversial attempts to impose compulsory sex education in schools, despite opposition from head teachers and faith leaders.

Mr Bryant plans to introduce a Ten-Minute Rule Bill calling for compulsory sex education in schools.

This type of bill is unlikely to become law but critics say the proposal, expected to be debated on 8th September, will be used to establish the mood in the new parliament on the issue of sex education.

Labour MP, Chris Bryant, plans to introduce a Ten-Minute Rule Bill calling for compulsory sex education in schools.




Contentious

The Government will be reviewing the National Curriculum later this year.

A proposal to make sex education compulsory was put forward by the previous Labour Government but it was withdrawn in April ahead of the General Election.

The contentious sex and relationship education plans were part of the Children, Schools and Families Bill.
Opposition

Under the plans, children were to be taught that same-sex civil partnerships were equal in value to marriage.

Faith schools were also set to be forced to teach children about homosexuality and tell kids how to access contraception.

At the time the plans came under fire from hundreds of head teachers and faith leaders who called on the Government to drop them.
Parents

In a letter to The Sunday Telegraph, also signed by The Christian Institute’s Director Colin Hart, the group made clear that the primary responsibility for raising children lies with parents and guardians.

And they added that while schools may be entrusted with the formal education of children, the “overall responsibility” remains with parents and guardians.

The letter continued: “The Children, Schools and Families Bill undermines this principle and seeks to impose a particular ideology by means of statutory sex and relationships education from the age of five”.
Defeated

Last month an amendment which would have forced all English academy schools to teach sex education was defeated in the House of Lords.

The amendment would have posed a particular threat to primary academies as they do not currently have to teach any sex education.

Baroness Massey, a Labour Peer, put forward the amendment to the Government’s Academies Bill which would have taken sex education lessons, in the form of Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE), out of the control of school governors.