Compulsory provision of sex education in UK schools

The parliament of UK has rejected the inclusion of the sex and relationship education in the schools of UK for the children over the age of 7. However, Sex and relationship education should be the compulsory part of the education curriculum for the children. The purpose of this education is to teach children about reproduction, sexuality and sexual health. There has been a significant debate over the efficacy of the sexual education in very young age. However, the purpose of sex and relationship education is not to promote early sexual activity not it displays sexual orientation. Some parts of the sex and relationship education are compulsory in schools, while some parts of the curriculum are not compulsory and parents can withdraw their children from those parts of this education. The incidence of sexual bullying in children has increased. Sexual harassment or sexual bullying can be significant issue for the mental and physical health of children. Therefore, this paper will discuss the importance of sex and relationship education for children to protect them for sexual bullying.

Sex and relationship education is a compulsory part of the school curriculum, which has been applied by the government of UK. All the secondary schools in UK and Whales have to include the provision of sex education in the basic curriculum for all the registered pupils. Sexual education is also considered as the part of social, emotional and mental well-being of the young children. This provision has been made compulsory, so that pupils could understand the importance of the family life and should develop moral consideration regarding relationships in their life. The key messages that are shared through such education are that children and young people must have sound knowledge about consent, choice and control. According to the evidences, it has also been found that compulsory sex and relationship education provide various benefits to children including helping them to protect themselves from the sexual abuse and harassment.  The members of the parliament in UK has voted against the legislation that would make sex and relationship education (SRE) compulsory in all the school. According to the findings of Rohrs (2017), young children have stated that SRE makes them feel safer and protect them against sexual abuse. The key stage 5 includes the children or young people between the age of 16 and 18 years. According to the reports one third of the girls between this age group have experienced unwanted touching at school. Only the state schools in Britain currently have the provision of compulsory sex education in the lessons. However, this compulsory course does not include the aspects of social and emotional elements (Mason & Woolley, 2011).

Relevance of Sex and Relationship Education in schools

There is a significant government and public support towards SRE, yet that curriculum has not been implemented straight forward, as it still includes many fears and anxieties in discussing sex and sexuality with children (Elley, 2013). This problem has created the political controversies that how the policies regarding SRE education should be formulated and how they should be implemented. The children in hey stage 5 has also stated that sex education should be compulsory, because the teenage girls have experienced sexual violence in their relationships and such young children are also interested in learning about risk and consequences of sharing pictures on social media (Long, 2017).

The various aspects of the sex and relationship includes different educational program for the children from different age groups. The government of UK has recommended that the sex and sexuality education should be according to the emotional and social maturity and developmental stage of children. The children in the key stage 5 are teenagers, who are vulnerable towards understanding sex, and mature relationships. This vulnerability increases the cases of sexual abuse and teenage pregnancy. Therefore, it can be said that sex education is ‘age appropriate’. Sexual bullying and abuse are the very significant issues for the young people. Therefore, young children are entitled to receive high quality sex and relationship education, which will help them to protect themselves (Mason & Woolley, 2011. Sex and relationship education will also help young children, who try to abuse their peers, as they will have better understanding of making right or wrong choices.

As the relationships are concerned, young children do not have maturity to understand the depth and emotional aspects of different relationships. Sex education at schools provides the information about the reproductive parts and also different physical aspects of the reproduction. However, SRE includes importance of feelings, emotions and values (Mason & Woolley, 2011). Sexual assault is like an epidemic problem all over the world. Sexual bullying and violence against females have increased over the years. According to the study Raphael (2015) of over 40% of the women face sexual assault in their life time and one in every five women are being raped. It has been significantly increased due to the technological development, pornography, increased use of internet and smart phones among young people. In the general population 68% of the cases of assault are unreported and in young collage students 98% of the assault cases are not reported.

Debate over Sex and Relationship Education implementation

The sexual abuse or bullying is mainly perpetrated by the friends or close family members. According to the report of NSPCC the sexual exploitation of the children below the age of 18 years can create exploitive consequences (NSPCC, 2013). In some cases young children can be sexually bullied in return of something such as, “food, accommodation, drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, affection, gifts, money” (NSPCC, 2013).  Sexual abuse or bullying can happen to any child, while certain circumstance can increase the vulnerability of the children towards sexual bullying. Studies have used various models to describe the abuser victim relationship. These models explain that such children had lack of sound sexual and relationship education that could have helped them from sexual vulnerability and bullying (Pemberton, 2011).

The significant aspect of sexual and relationship education is that it helps children and young people in developing awareness of sexual assault, sexual abuse, and learning the process of reducing the risk of sexual bullying (Raphael, 2015). The current political waves are in favor of implementing the compulsory curriculum of SRE in UK. The government of UK is looking forward to amend the Children and Social work bill for integrating the ‘age appropriate’ ex and relationship education (SRE) as the part of the national curriculum for all the primary and secondary schools for children over the age of 11 years. The integration of this course in curriculum will be a significant shift and parents will be allowed to opt out their children out of SRE classes.  The change is important so that teenagers could understand the meaning of consent in the sexual relationships and how they can protect themselves from online exploitation or sexting (Turner & Hope, 2017). This is because young children or teenagers are mainly concerned about the online sexual bullying.  Currently sex has been introduced in the curriculum as the part of biology or science, but there is more requirement of a detailed education regarding sexual relationships and sexuality (Turner & Hope, 2017). The government is also looking forward to introduce the subject with the name “Relationship education” in the primary schools and “Sex and Relationship Education” in the secondary schools (Department of Education, 2017). However, the central importance of these subjects is to teach children about healthy relationships, what kind of relationships are health, when they are being sexually bullied and how they can protect themselves from sexual bullying (Department of Education, 2017). Sex and relationship education in the schools and at community level is very important, so that children could foster mature decision making in relation to sexuality and sexual relationships. This formal education will also help adolescents in promoting their physical, mental and emotional well being.  It is also important for gender equality, gender relationships and violence against teenagers. SRE will promote gender equality and responsible sexual behavior (Haberland & Rogow, 2015).

Conclusion:

Sex and relationship education has been a significant topic of debate in many Western countries. This topic has also been under scrutiny in UK. However, if this has been seen from the perspective of the children and parents of teenagers, this education is very significant in the 21^st century. Government of UK has announced that sex and relationship education will be made compulsory in the primary and secondary schools of UK, for the children above the age of 11 years. Moist of the parents and children are in favor of the education in the regular curriculum. However, he government has also proposed that parents, who are unwilling to make their children learn about sex and relationships, will be free to withdraw their children from SRE classes. According to the changing technology and changing time, the incidents of sexual bullying have increased in teenagers. SRE will help children to learn about healthy and unhealthy relationships and will protect them from sexual bullying.

References:

Department of Education. (2017). Schools to teach 21st century relationships and sex education.

Retrieved from: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/schools-to-teach-21st-century-relationships-and-sex-education

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researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN06103/SN06103.pdf

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https://www.nspcc.org.uk/globalassets/documents/information-service/research-briefing-child-sexual-abuse.pdf

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Turner, C. & Hope, C. (2017). Ministers set to announce plans for compulsory sex education

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