Hanafin wants sex education in boys' schools

Dáil Report:Minister for Education Mary Hanafin expressed concern that single-sex boys' schools were the least likely to implement the relationships and sexuality education programme.

"That message needs to get across very strongly. It is just as important an issue for boys as for girls."

Ms Hanafin said relationships and sexuality education was a crucially important part of overall social, personal and health education.

"I think it is important that schools would realise as well that there is nothing in the programme that conflicts with their ethos.

"It is very possible to teach all of that programme in the context of the school's ethos. Schools all over the country have found this." Ms Hanafin said a report on the issue had recommended inspections take place.

"The schools themselves felt that it gave the subject status if it was one where an inspector came into the school to look at it."

Inspectors had been assigned to regional teams and would be starting in September, she said. "I cannot say at this stage how many will take place, but they will be regional, cross-sectoral and cross-gender."

Ms Hanafin said that it was very important that the teachers involved would want to teach the subject and that it was not given to a teacher who happened to have a spare class.

Fine Gael spokeswoman on education Olwyn Enright said her biggest concern was the recent survey by the Crisis Pregnancy Agency showing that 11 per cent of secondary schools were not teaching the programme to first and second years, rising to 20 per cent in third year, with one-third of all schools not covering it at the senior cycle.

She added that while she shared concerns about the pressure on the curriculum, the programme was an extremely important subject and they needed to ensure that all children participated in it.

Suggesting that the Government was "all over the place" on the issue, Ms Enright said that Fianna Fáil and the PDs wanted the age of consent lowered to 16 years and yet they were not ensuring that the necessary sex education was provided to young people in schools.

She added that in 2005, 42 teenagers under 15 gave birth to children.

"I am not suggesting that this can all be solved just by better sex education in schools. But I think that we can go some way in addressing it by doing that."

Ms Hanafin said that different schools were employing different models in delivering the programme. Some schools were doing it just with the classroom teacher, while others were bringing in professionals from the HSE.

She said she hoped that schools would include advice on what was in the programme in information meetings with parents at the beginning of the academic year.

Ms Hanafin added that the Department of Education inspectors were not there to inspect the HSE professionals. They would be looking at the overall context in which the programme was being delivered.

The department, she said, would be actively encouraging schools to see the programme as part of a wider education. It should not be something to be dropped close to examinations, which was currently happening.