The Government has today bowed to pressure and withdrawn its highly controversial home education and sex education plans for England.
It is believed the Conservative Party blocked the sex education plans. Both the Tories and the Lib Dems were opposed to the home education proposals.
Under the proposals, sex education was to become a statutory part of the national curriculum and control over the content of lessons was to be taken away from school governors and given to Whitehall officials.
Shelved
Proposals to restrict the freedoms of home-schooling parents have also been shelved as the Government attempts to get its Children, Schools and Families (CSF) Bill into law before the general election.
The changes come as a result of the horse trading that goes on in the final throes of a Parliament.
Under the contentious sex and relationship education (SRE) plans, children were to be taught that same-sex civil partnerships were equal in value to marriage.
Contraception
Faith schools were also set to be forced to teach children about homosexuality and tell kids how to access contraception.
But now Government Minister Baroness Morgan of Drefelin has tabled amendments to remove the clauses from the CSF Bill, having failed to secure support from the Conservative Party.
The Bill will pass its remaining stages in the Lords today without the home education or SRE proposals.
Protection
Mike Judge, Head of Communications at The Christian Institute, said: “This is good news for all of us who care about protecting our children from sexualisation and protecting the freedom of families.
“Let children be children, let parents be parents and let Whitehall bureaucrats stop meddling from on high”, he added.
The Conservatives had promised in February that they would block the home schooling plans.
The Lib Dems also opposed the home education plans, labelling them as “excessive” and “illiberal”.
Crime
Under the proposals, home-schooling parents could have ultimately committed a crime if they had failed to register with the Government or provide particular information on how they planned to educate their children.
Government officials would have been allowed to interview children one-to-one about their home education and if parents objected local authorities could have revoked their home-schooling registration.
Michael Gove, the Conservative Party’s Shadow Children’s Secretary, assured parents that his party would work to block the proposals from becoming law.
Undermine
Just last month hundreds of head teachers and faith leaders called on the Government to drop the SRE plans contained in the CSF Bill.
In a letter to The Sunday Telegraph, also signed by The Christian Institute’s Director Colin Hart, the signatories 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”.