Thousands of children in Scotland have been withdrawn from sex education classes over the last five years, it has been reported.
According to freedom of information requests obtained by The Scotsman, at least 2,382 primary school children and 181 high school children have been removed from Relationships, Sexual Health and Parenthood (RSHP) lessons by their parents. The newspaper noted that the overall number is likely to be “far higher” as Edinburgh and Glasgow figures are not included.
Reasons given by parents for removing children from RSHP lessons include the use of images of “real-life” body parts, information on transgenderism, and the use of inappropriate language.
Trans ideology
According to local authorities, the number of primary school children being withdrawn has quadrupled since 2021-2022, just before the Scottish Parliament debated and passed proposals to allow 16-year-olds to change legal sex. In 2021-22, 204 children were removed, which rose to 427 in 2022-23 and more than doubled again to 908 in 2023-24.
During the current academic year, at least 654 primary school, and 94 secondary school children have already been withdrawn from RSHP classes by their parents.
Argyll and Bute Council received a complaint reporting that “revision of body parts introduced real-life images of male and female bodies, which some parents deemed inappropriate and traumatising”.
Scottish Borders Council was told that information regarding transgender ideology was inappropriate in sex education, while Renfrewshire Council received several complaints after schools failed to inform parents of the lessons in advance.
‘Lack of trust’
Roz McCall MSP, the Scottish Conservatives’ Deputy Party Spokesperson on Children, commented: “Parents should always be able to decide whether this sort of material is age-appropriate for their child.”
Deputy Alba leader Neale Hanvey added: “Parents must be regarded as active partners in such matters and have the right to know what their children are being taught and be able to decide what is acceptable, particularly on sensitive topics such as sexual health.
“It is unsurprising that there has been a sharp rise in pupil withdrawal from sex education as it reflects a growing lack of trust, especially in the context of recent gender policy difficulties and the Scottish Government’s so-called ‘sex survey’ of pupils in 2021.”
Parental rights
In response, a Scottish Government spokesperson stated: “While local authorities are responsible for the delivery of relationships, sexual health and parenthood education in schools, national guidance states that it must be age and stage appropriate, and is presented in a sensitive manner.
“The Scottish Government is finalising updated guidance, which will be published before the end of 2025. This makes clear that it is good practice for schools to regularly involve parents and carers in discussions around curriculum content.”
According to current guidance, “authorities must be sensitive to the cases in which a parent or carer may wish to withdraw a child or young person, or a child or young person wishes to withdraw themselves from all or part of a planned sexual health education programme within a RSHP education programme”.
It also informs schools that where a “parent or carer decides to withdraw a school aged child from sexual health education lessons, arrangements should be made for the child to have alternative positive educational provision”.
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