27 April 2009

Reacting to Sir Alasdair Macdonald’s Independent Review of the proposal to make Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) education statutory, including Sex and Relationships Education (SRE), Julie Bentley, Chief Executive fpa said:

“To hear more independent recommendations for making PSHE a statutory subject in primary and secondary schools is an overwhelming vote of confidence for sensible and responsible education of our young people, reflecting the wide ranging support for statutory SRE from young people, parents, and the general public.
 
“Nevertheless we’re concerned that keeping parental opt out means that SRE will be the only subject in a statutory curriculum that parents have the right to remove their children from. We would like to see this recommendation reconsidered.
 
“Religion and SRE are not incompatible and many faith schools teach SRE extremely well. It’s critically important that governing bodies in a minority of schools completely opposed to SRE do not interpret the recommendations of this report to mean they can tell young people for example that contraception isn’t a matter of choice - it is simply wrong.  So we would like further assurances that when SRE becomes statutory, all schools will teach it responsibly, ethically and factually as a ‘core’ subject as this report recommends.”

-ENDS-

For further information please contact fpa’s press office on 020 7608 5265/5264.
Mobile 07958 921060.

fpa (Family Planning Association) is the only registered charity working to improve the sexual health and reproductive rights of all people throughout the UK.