Sir, - David Fitzgerald states in his letter (May 3rd) that: "For as long as I can remember parents and schools have been asking for a value driven programme in RSE to be developed." His memory doesn't seem to go back as far as 1986 when the only official survey was carried out to ascertain "Parents preferences with regard to sex education". Over 71 per cent of parents said that they would prefer to deal with this aspect of their children's education themselves and less than 14 per cent listed teachers as their preferred source for sex education.
Can Mr Fitzgerald please tell us of any country which has been successful in reducing teen pregnancies, and promiscuity etc as a result of introducing an RSE programme? The RSE programme is the equivalent of a house owner who, after discovering a leak in a watermain which is likely to flood his house, decides that it is time to teach his children to swim. Let us tackle the flood first!
The famous saying that "for evil to prosper it is only necessary that good men sit and do nothing" is apt in this case. We should be campaigning against pornography, abortion referral etc and not legalising them as our present government has done.
Apart from the content of RSE programmes, there is a more fundamental flaw in programmes of this nature. This is that they contravene the principle of subsidiarity which, simply stated, says: "The higher Community must never encroach upon or absorb the functions of a lower community". In this case, the state school must not take over the role and duty of parents who are more than capable of dealing with this matter. - Yours, etc.,
Drumkeirin,
Co Leitrim.