Eideard

The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away. After intense lobbying by religious groups, amendments have been made by the government to the children, schools and families bill which is due to come into force in September 2011. This now means that faith schools in Britain have a right to “reflect a school’s religious character” in their interpretation of the new law. Or in other words: faith schools can continue preaching that contraception, abortion and homosexuality are wrong or sinful, even though sex and relationships education (SRE) – which will be a compulsory part of the curriculum – is supposed to promote equality, diversity and tolerance.

With credit to the government, this bill does show they have realised the affect on young people of a lack of sex and relationship education in schools. But it is imperative that young people are educated about sex as something other than a biological function. And too often, it seems, adults – and parents in particular – dislike talking with young people about sex. This might be due to prudishness, or embarrassment, or even a worry about potentially “corrupting” the younger generation; but sadly this results in misinformation and a lack of knowledge, rather than equipping young people with the skills they need to make healthy decisions about sex…

So, why, with this progressive new legislation, is there an amendment that means faith schools can adapt it to suit their beliefs? Ed Balls, the schools secretary, says in a letter to the Guardian that “faith schools will not be able to opt out of statutory lessons on sex and relationship education”; but if his argument that the “bottom line is that all young people should receive accurate and balanced information, and discrimination is prevented in all schools”, how can teaching that sex outside marriage is wrong, or that contraception is bad, or that homosexuality is a sin, be seen as “balanced” information? Surely that will contradict the guidance provided as part of the sex education curriculum? And how does faith school teaching about sex fit in with the idea of tolerance or equality?

During early days of the Bush and Blair Holy War many of us realized the UK was becoming a 51st state. We just didn’t notice that it was being relocated into the heart of Texas.