New Relationships and Sex Education guidance keeps religious opt-outs

New statutory guidance for the teaching of Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) in schools in England has been published by the Department for Education (DfE).

Humanists UK has welcomed many aspects of the guidance as improvements over the draft that the previous government consulted on, such as that the Government has dropped arbitrary age limits on when schools can teach issues. But it has expressed disappointment that schools with religious character will still be able to teach in ways that diverge from the facts. The guidance says ‘Schools with a religious character may teach their distinctive faith perspective on relationships.’

This opt-out continues the problem that students in faith schools may not be taught accurate or impartial information about LGBT+ people and relationships, abortion and contraception, or even divorce and sex outside of marriage. At any rate abortion is barely mentioned in the guidance at all.

Humanists UK unequivocally supports making RSE a part of the National Curriculum, and believes that the religious character of a school or pupils’ religious backgrounds more generally should not deprive children of their entitlement to comprehensive, evidence-based, and age-appropriate teaching. While schools of a religious character are legally entitled to deliver the subject in line with the tenets of their faith ethos and determine whether they consider certain topics (same-sex relationships, for example) to be ‘appropriate’, many children will continue to miss out on a comprehensive and unbiased RSE.

Humanists UK’s Education Campaigns Manager Kieran Aldred said:

‘Faith schools’ continuing right to teach RSE from the position of their faith risks undermining students’ right to fair and accurate information about sex and relationships. Information about same-sex relationships, contraception and abortion, and sex outside of marriage should be provided in an objective way.

‘We urge the Government to remove the faith-based opt-outs from RSE and prevent biased resources being used in schools. Only then will the subject be able to truly ensure that every child is able to grow up healthy, happy, and above all, safe.’

Humanists UK is a longstanding member of the Sex Education Forum and the PSHE Forum, and campaigns for good quality, age- and developmentally appropriate, and evidence-led Relationships and Sex Education.