The introduction of compulsory health and relationships education in English primary schools should be applauded. Children are entitled to be informed about themselves, and the world, as part of their schooling. As well as the facts about bodies, minds, human differences and similarities, they should be taught to think about their feelings for other people. Parents, carers and wider networks of friends and relatives have a crucial role in socialising the next generation. But input from teachers and classmates is also essential. Schools are, in almost all cases, the place where young people start to make their way in the world as individuals, learn to manage themselves in a peer group, and separate from their families. The ideas that shape such experiences are part of growing up. They deserve to be part of the curriculum.
In many classrooms across the country, these kinds of lessons already happen, in both primary and secondary schools, under the PSHE (personal, social, health, and economic education) heading. It would have been preferable for the government to build on existing good practice by taking the simple step of making PSHE compulsory. But the new guidance from the Department for Education, which covers sex education in secondary schools as well as setting out what should be taught to primary-age children, is still a big step.
Since official guidance on sex education was last updated in 2000 there is, as the education secretary, Damian Hinds, has acknowledged, much catching up to do. In particular, the role of technology requires urgent attention. Schools already make efforts to promote online safety, by alerting parents to the risks posed by unsuitable content, and encouraging them to reflect on how much time children spend using screens. It makes sense to instruct children in such issues directly, and supply them with the tools to think about their behaviour, although new classes in online safety and privacy must not be seen as a substitute for regulators and law-makers taking responsibility for protecting vulnerable young people.
The crisis in young people’s mental health is well documented, with alarmingly high rates of depression and self-harm, particularly in younger teenage girls. It would be glib to suggest that revisions to the curriculum offer any kind of solution to a problem that has spiralled out of control, and been greatly exacerbated by cuts to both national and local mental health services. But that is not to say that schools are helpless. Mental health and illness are complex, and while self-help should not be proposed as a substitute for treatment, it is a good idea to teach young people how to talk about their emotions, how to recognise symptoms of anxiety or depression, and how to access professional help.
As with the sensible package announced by Mr Hinds last month to address teacher shortages, the devil of these proposals is in the details of their funding. None of what has been promised will be delivered to the required standard unless the government increases its paltry offer of £6m. Beyond the nuts and bolts of the facts of life, these are issues that require well-informed and sensitive handling: sexual orientation, gender identity, self-harm, FGM and abuse are deeply personal and difficult subjects to tackle in a classroom. That said, it is good to see a Conservative government turning its face so strongly against the homophobia of the past, by promoting a diverse understanding of human sexuality; and a relief to see a cross-party consensus emerge in our divided parliament in support of a humane and progressive direction for education.
