Dozens of organisations and charities have written to the education secretary, amid fears that sex education in England may become a casualty of the culture wars.
More than 50 organisations concerned with education and tackling violence against women and girls (VAWG) have written to Gillian Keegan to urge her to resist the “politicisation” of sex education, following a row in which Conservative backbench MPs claimed that children were being taught “graphic lessons on oral sex, how to choke your partner safely, and 72 genders”.
Rishi Sunak responded by asking the Department for Education to “ensure schools are not teaching inappropriate or contested content” in the subject of relationships, sex and health education (RSHE), and said he would bring forward a review into the subject.
The letter comes after an independent investigation for the Isle of Man government this week found that claims that children had been left “traumatised” by inappropriate and graphic sex education taught by a drag queen in a school on the island were “inaccurate” and had led to teachers facing death threats.
The prime minister confirmed a review into sex education, which will apply only to state schools in England, after a Tory MP, Miriam Cates, said children were being exposed to sex education classes that were “age-inappropriate, extreme, sexualising and inaccurate”. But teaching unions said the claims were “inflammatory rhetoric” and the review was “politically motivated”.
