Thursday 5 November 2009

Compulsory sex ed is government exploitation of schools

The government has announced today that it will implement the recommendations of the pro-abortion SRE Review Group for sex education throughout all Key Stages (age 5-16) of the education system. Mr Ed Balls, the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, issued a ministerial statement.

Paul Tully, SPUC general secretary, told the media earlier today:
"We condemn this exploitation of the state-controlled school system by the government to deliver its anti-life policies to children, by-passing parental involvement.

"The government is removing the right of parents to protect their children from the explicit promotion of abortion and sexual health interventions in the latter stages. This will be exploited to pressure more schools to deliver government-style sexual health interventions. In recent years, these have been characterised by obscene and lurid presentations. These are the classroom equivalent of 'advertorials', promoting sex and birth-control products. They send the message to children: 'do whatever you like - just be sure to avoid or abort any pregnancy'.

"In today's statement, Mr Balls pays lip-service to the ethos of religious schools, but does not give them an opt-out from its SRE agenda. He demands that school governors should deliver the 'core entitlement' of the government's agenda, putting the onus on governors to find ways of reconciling this with their school's ethos.

"Mr Balls is bullying governors to help him enforce policies which are against the ethos of their schools, against the moral and religious values of their institutions, against the welfare of their pupils, and against the rights of parents."
SPUC has responded to the government's announcement by publishing a critique of government sexual health interventions for schools The document is being sent to all secondary schools, alerting them to the impact of the kind of SRE lessons that the government says children are 'entitled' to receive.

Comments on this blog? Email them to johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk
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