Senior cycle teachers in Ireland should not be required to deliver sex education classes unless they are happy to teach the “sensitive” material, a teaching union has said.
The Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland (ASTI) wrote to school officials to say teaching staff should not be made to take Social, Personal and Health Education (SPHE) or Relationships and Sexual Education lessons without “full and comprehensive training”.
From 2027, SPHE will be mandatory for 15 to 18 year olds for the first time, and will cover gender, pornography, relationships and sexual consent. The curriculum says LGBTQ+ relationships and identities should be “fully integrated” into the teaching.
No qualification
Regulations state that parents will have the right to withdraw their child from any teaching that goes against their conscience, although this will cease to apply when the child turns 18.
ASTI’s Secretary General Kieran Christie said that teachers “should only teach material they feel they are comfortable and competent to teach”, adding that some teachers will need “additional expertise and support” if they are to deliver the subject.
While schools will be required to provide at least 60 hours of the teaching across two years, the subject will not be examined as a Leaving Certificate subject.
The Teachers’ Union of Ireland also suggested more teachers would be needed if the subject is to be taught to older students, with the TUI’s Michael Gillespie noting that many schools already operate with a thinly stretched staff body.
Parental rights
In December, The Christian Institute said significant improvements needed to be made to the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment’s (NCCA) draft specification for Senior Cycle SPHE. In particular, it identified poor recognition of parental rights, free speech gaps, and the absence of any reference to marriage as three major problems to address.
The Institute’s Ciarán Kelly said at the time: “Parents and teachers of all faiths and none are concerned at some of the language that has – and has not – been used in this draft curriculum, despite the sensitivities of the issues involved.
“The Constitution and the European Convention recognise the primacy of parents in the education of their children. Sadly, no such status is afforded to them by this drafting, which doesn’t even see fit to highlight the need to consult parents set out in education law.”
Marriage
He continued: “Marriage is understood the world over to be the best context for bringing up children. The evidence consistently demonstrates that children do best when brought up by a mother and father who are married to one another. But again, you wouldn’t know it from this draft which studiously avoids all mention of marriage.
“By contrast, it has plenty to say in support of contested gender ideology, thereby risking marginalising those who uphold the reality of biological sex. It needs to balance this by including a clear commitment to free speech for students who do not accept transgender ideology, or who cannot affirm sexual practices which run contrary to their religious beliefs.”
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