Schools’ fear of teaching sex education ‘is driving rise in STIs’
Louisa Clarence-Smith
Fri, 10 November 2023
Dame Rachel De Souza said young people had raised concerns over their lack of education on sex and relationships - Anthony Upton
Schools’ fear of teaching sex education is driving a rise in sexually transmitted diseases, the Children’s Commissioner for England has said.
Dame Rachel De Souza said that issues around sexual health were not always being taught consistently or well because of a failure to resolve controversies around sex education lessons and a lack of clear guidance for teachers.
She told The Times Health Commission: “I go around the country talking to teenagers and saying, ‘What’s on your mind?’ and I cannot tell you how many times sex education comes up.
“They say, ‘nobody has ever taught me – is my body right? What do I do about preventing pregnancy? How should I have a relationship?’ They’re asking me about this. Heads are so frightened about teaching these things and they’re not teaching these things well in school.”
Data published by the UK Health and Security Agency shows that in 2022, the number of new STI diagnoses among young people aged 15 to 24 years increased by 26.5 per cent to 164,337 cases.
The agency said this was largely because of the near doubling of cases of gonorrhoea over the same period to 31,037 cases. Diagnosis of chlamydia also increased.
Dame Rachel said that too many head teachers were “outsourcing” sex and relationships education.
She said: “You’ve got very variable teaching. Maybe sex education is taught by an unqualified teacher, it’s not prioritised. But added to that I think we’ve got this worry about ‘what should I teach?’.
Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, ordered an urgent review of sex education in schools earlier this year after parents told The Telegraph that children as young as 12 have been asked in lessons what they “feel” about oral and anal sex, while other children have been taught that there are “100 genders”.
The Department for Education is due to introduce age limits for sex education content and will tell schools not to teach contested gender ideology. It is expected to publish new sex education guidance for schools before the end of the year.
Louisa Clarence-Smith
Fri, 10 November 2023
Dame Rachel De Souza said young people had raised concerns over their lack of education on sex and relationships - Anthony Upton
Schools’ fear of teaching sex education is driving a rise in sexually transmitted diseases, the Children’s Commissioner for England has said.
Dame Rachel De Souza said that issues around sexual health were not always being taught consistently or well because of a failure to resolve controversies around sex education lessons and a lack of clear guidance for teachers.
She told The Times Health Commission: “I go around the country talking to teenagers and saying, ‘What’s on your mind?’ and I cannot tell you how many times sex education comes up.
“They say, ‘nobody has ever taught me – is my body right? What do I do about preventing pregnancy? How should I have a relationship?’ They’re asking me about this. Heads are so frightened about teaching these things and they’re not teaching these things well in school.”
Data published by the UK Health and Security Agency shows that in 2022, the number of new STI diagnoses among young people aged 15 to 24 years increased by 26.5 per cent to 164,337 cases.
The agency said this was largely because of the near doubling of cases of gonorrhoea over the same period to 31,037 cases. Diagnosis of chlamydia also increased.
‘Very variable teaching’
Dame Rachel said that too many head teachers were “outsourcing” sex and relationships education.
She said: “You’ve got very variable teaching. Maybe sex education is taught by an unqualified teacher, it’s not prioritised. But added to that I think we’ve got this worry about ‘what should I teach?’.
Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, ordered an urgent review of sex education in schools earlier this year after parents told The Telegraph that children as young as 12 have been asked in lessons what they “feel” about oral and anal sex, while other children have been taught that there are “100 genders”.
The Department for Education is due to introduce age limits for sex education content and will tell schools not to teach contested gender ideology. It is expected to publish new sex education guidance for schools before the end of the year.
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