Sex education in England could be made compulsory and delivered to much younger ages, the Government has said.
Launching a review of sex education, schools minister Jim Knight confirmed that the Government was considering targeting primary schools pupils and scrapping a parent’s right to withdraw their child from lessons.
Under the current law schools must teach the biological facts about sex in science lessons to secondary school pupils. But anything more than this is not compulsory and parents can ask for their children not to be included.
After years of amoral sex education, Britain has the highest rate of teenage pregnancy in western Europe. More than 20 schoolgirls become pregnant in England every day. Sexually Transmitted Infections have risen sharply amongst teenagers.
Mr Knight said: “This review is a direct response to concerns raised by young people. We know that SRE [Sex and Relationships Education] is good in most schools but we know from talking to young people that in some schools SRE teaching is not up to scratch. This is not acceptable. I want to look at what the best schools are doing and make sure every school follows their lead.”
The Christian Institute’s Mike Judge told The Daily Telegraph: “Sex education has been disastrous for many years. It hasn’t reduced teenage pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases have gone through the roof. If this was the private sector, this strategy would have been abandoned long ago.”