Five-year-olds could be given sex education if proposals from the Deputy Children’s Commissioner are adopted. Sue Berelowitz, Deputy Children’s Commissioner, was tasked with looking at the aftermath of Pakistani grooming gangs, and her conclusions was that parents right to remove their children from some elements of sex education should be removed.
Under the current system some children, like those at Free Schools, do not have to follow the sex education guidelines laid down by government. Also parents have a right to take their children out of lessons they feel are inappropriate.
But under the system proposed by Berelomitz these exemptions would be removed. Parents would not be allowed to opt out, even if they have a moral or religious objection to the nature of the material being taught. This could include teaching about gay relationships in Primary Schools, something that many parents are uncomfortable with.
It would also mean the state would have the discretion to decide what children learn and at what age they learn it, leaving parents powerless to prevent very young children being taught about issues that might be thought to be inappropriate.
Berelomitz claimed her strategy would help mitigate the problems of grooming and children access pornography on the internet. She said: “Once again we are calling for age-appropriate relationships and sex education to be made a statutory component of the curriculum. Young people need to understand what are and what are not healthy relationships.”
But Antonia Tully of Safe at School hit back saying: “Parents constantly find themselves having to battle with schools in order to protect their children from inappropriate sex education. The recommendation from the Education Committee that parents can continue to withdraw their children from sex education, isn’t addressing this problem.
“We don’t need new sex education guidelines either. We already have guidelines for schools which repeatedly stress that parents must be involved. What is missing is a robust mechanism to ensure that schools really do engage with parents.
“Parents are the primary educators of their children, they are natural sex educators of their children and they are the experts on their own children.”
Today’s report did not mention any practical ways to stop abuse by grooming gangs and despite numerous calls the Office of the Children’s Commissioner did not respond to Breitbart London’s requests for an interview on subject.
The demands for more sex education comes on the day the Chief Executive of Oxfordshire County Council announced she is leaving office with a £600,000 pay-off despite having presided over an administration that failed to prevent children being abused for six years.