Rishi Sunak Faces Mounting Pressure as Nearly 70 Conservative MPs Push for Legislation Requiring Schools to Disclose Sex Education Materials
Close to 70 Conservative MPs are urging Chancellor Rishi Sunak to introduce a legal obligation for schools to make sex education lesson materials publicly available. The lawmakers are throwing their support behind a “sex education transparency” Private Members’ Bill presented by Miriam Cates, the Member of Parliament for Penistone and Stocksbridge. This proposed legislation would compel schools to share copies of the materials used in these lessons with parents. Additionally, the bill seeks to prohibit English schools from utilizing externally sourced teaching resources for relationships and sex education unless they are made available to the public.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson raised the issue at the Conservative conference, stating that it should not be a contentious matter for parents to be aware of what their children are being taught about relationships in school. However, specific measures for how schools should share these materials with parents have not yet been outlined.
Miriam Cates introduced her bill following the legal battle of Clare Page, a parental advocate, who was unable to access her daughter’s school’s sex education curriculum. This legal dispute emerged after her 15-year-old daughter mentioned that she had been taught that “heteronormativity” was undesirable and that a “sex-positive” approach to relationships was encouraged. In June, a tribunal judge ruled that the commercial interests of the third-party sex education provider outweighed the public interest in compelling the school to release the lesson plan. The judge’s decision was made despite recognizing that Gillian Keegan, the Education Secretary, had written to all schools stating that “parents should be able to view all curriculum materials,” even in cases where external agencies advised against sharing materials due to commercial legal restrictions.
Miriam Cates is now calling upon the Government to include this legislation in the King’s Speech scheduled for November. She emphasized, “My question would be, if this isn’t included in the King’s Speech, how does the Government plan to translate this into reality?