Rishi Sunak enacts ban on gender identity education in new school sex education rules
May 16, 2024Rishi Sunak is reportedly intensifying focus on culture war issues by instituting a ban on teaching children about gender identity and having “explicit” conversations about sex before the age of 13.
This move follows announcements by common sense minister Esther McVey to crack down on pro-LGBTQ+ lanyards worn by civil servants. The government will soon release guidance on the appropriate timing for introducing sex education to children.
According to ‘Yahoo! News’, the guidance will also assert that gender identity is regarded as a contested topic by ministers, emphasising that teachers should concentrate on the “biological” facts about sex. Reports indicate that the guidance will prohibit all sex education in primary schools until year five, when children are nine or older.
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At that stage, lessons will focus solely on conception and birth, avoiding explicit discussions of sexual acts until children are 13 or older, according to The Times. The guidance will also delay conversations about domestic violence, coercive control, and sexual violence until children reach 13.
Ms McVey’s recent ban on rainbow-coloured and other “random” lanyards in the civil service is part of a series of new measures targeting what the Tories are calling a “war on woke.”
Mr. Sunak’s common sense minister has criticised the LGBTQ+ charity Stonewall, known for advising Whitehall departments on inclusivity. She insisted that “there will be no more contracts for external diversity spending from this as soon as this guidance is made live unless signed off by a government minister.”
The new guidance reportedly responds to concerns that some children are receiving relationships, sex, and health education (RSHE) that is not age-appropriate. The prime minister initiated a curriculum review after concerns from Conservative MPs about children receiving sex education at too young an age.
Other measures to be announced by education secretary Gillian Keegan after the review include a requirement for schools to provide parents with samples of the materials their children will be taught, aiming to allay parental fears.
Under the new guidelines, children will not learn about contraception, sexually transmitted infections, and abortion until they are 13.
Current guidance includes broad lesson modules suggesting that primary school-aged children should learn about different types of families and healthy relationships. Secondary school students, however, are taught more complex topics, including puberty, sexual relationships, consent, unsafe relationships, and online harms.
RSHE has been mandatory in all schools in England since September 2020.
The Department for Education stated it could not confirm the newspaper reports and would not speculate on leaks.
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