Sex Education in Faith-biased Schools

The British Humanist Association is urging its members to write to their MPs, using the BHA email system urging them to oppose an amendment to the Children, Schools and Families Bill, when it is debated next Tuesday (23rd February).

The bill as originally worded was designed to ensure all young people have access to accurate, balanced, Sex and Relationships Education that promotes equality and diversity, and to prevent faith schools from teaching that same sex relationships and the use of contraception are wrong.

The BHA, the Children's Rights Alliance for England and the Accord Coalition have condemned the new Government amendment, describing it as discriminatory.

The amendment to the Bill, tabled by the Secretary of State Ed Balls, would permit state-funded “faith schools” to teach "PSHE", which includes Sex and Relationships Education, “in a way that reflects the school’s religious character”.

However Ed Balls has claimed that this is “nonsense”, and that the impact of the new amendment is simply to allow faith schools to represent the religion of the school as one view among others, while still being required to deliver the full curriculum in a way that is accurate, balanced, and promotes equality.

The BHA and numerous other organisations dispute this interpretation.