Mr. John Curtis:

The Joint Managerial Body is grateful to the Oireachtas committee for its invitation to present the perspective of post-primary faith schools on the provision of relationships and sexuality education.

The Minister’s recent request that a review of all aspects of RSE provision be carried out is very timely as the majority of curricular frameworks and resource materials are almost 20 years old and the vital professional development support layer requires additional capacity. Many of our school mission statements cite development of the whole person as their central aim. Education, however, cannot be deemed to be holistic in any sense if it ignores either our actions or the spiritual or moral basis of the values that inform such actions. Schools must therefore engage fully with parents in the development of high-quality programmes of relationships and sexuality education congruent with the characteristic spirit of the school and setting out to educate, in the truest sense, the values, understandings and actions of the generation of young people in their care.

The position of Catholic schools in regard to sex education was outlined in a church document, Familiaris Consortio, which states: "Sex education, which is a basic right and duty of parents, must also be carried out under their attentive guidance, whether at home or in educational centres chosen by them." At our annual conference in May of this year, Archbishop Eamon Martin said: "Relationships and Sexuality Education ought to be an integral part of the curriculum in a Catholic school ... [but] should not be reduced to the imparting of so-called 'objective' information, dissociated from a morals and values framework or from the totality of relationships."

Archbishop Martin further stated: "I agree that a review of relationships and sexuality education in all schools, including our Catholic schools, is essential if we are to help young people cope with the risks to their health and well-being presented in both the virtual and real worlds they inhabit". Setting the scene for the delivery of RSE at local level requires the establishment of a school policy which clearly articulates the context and content of the programme and engages, in particular, with the parent perspective. Informing what transacts within the RSE classroom equally demands a high level of engagement between teaching staff, school leadership and the support services.

To this end, the Joint Managerial Body, Association of Management of Catholic Secondary Schools, JMB AMCSS, as an organisation, and JMB schools on an individual basis, have been closely associated with the development, consultation and piloting of both the SPHE, incorporating RSE curriculum at junior cycle, and the senior cycle RSE programme and materials. It is nonetheless incumbent upon school management at local level to ensure that such programmes are compatible with the school’s ethos and that parents have had their right to consultation respected, as well as their right to withdraw their child from RSE classes.

There remains, however, an ongoing challenge in this area which can only be remediated by high quality in-service and ongoing professional support for teachers. A reduction in the professional support service for teachers in RSE in recent years represents an opportunity for policymakers to engage with both HSE and the Department of Education and Skills, DES, in maintaining such support across the system. The provision of social personal and health education classes across junior cycle is not an option for schools and should be universal. The RSE element of the SPHE curriculum is similarly prescribed from first to third year, with the caveat of an opt-out for parents, but challenges to provision include the availability of teachers trained and willing to teach this

element. As a matter of priority, and in advance of any medium-term review, DES should invest in a new round of training opportunities for teachers to maintain and increase the pool of such educators available for scheduling into RSE classes.

In short, we need to adequately train and professionally develop RSE teachers in their own right – developing expertise in every aspect of both the course materials and the likely questions necessarily arising in the classroom setting. The development of a postgraduate diploma course in SPHE-RSE is particularly to be recommended.

The policy of age appropriateness has always formed a central pillar of provision of RSE education in schools, particularly as it relates to the question of sexual consent. The concept could, however, be widened to incorporate conceptual appropriateness in that students with special educational needs or English language deficit or those at particular ends of the maturity scale should be provided with a differentiated model of teaching and engagement with this critical subject area. Local school management is best placed to identify such needs but yet again, such nuanced practice will demand high-calibre teacher professional development and school leadership awareness.

These are critical elements in a young person’s education which demand higher than usual levels of school-family mutual awareness and at least some level of genuine partnership in achieving the holistic goals of the educational enterprise. RSE, in all its forms, represents such an imperative. Parents and guardians need face-to-face contact with the school on this matter. Beginning with general information sessions and offering individualised meetings with school personnel where required, represent a basic level of engagement. The development of an RSE policy must also involve the parent representative body in the school as well as the staff, student council, board of management and trustees. The relationship between home and school on this issue must be a trusting one, and this can only be developed by maintaining high levels of awareness and communication.

This is equally true of the relationship between outside agencies and school communities. School management is charged with the duty of ensuring everything that happens in the school community aligns with its ethos. Specific areas such as religious education, faith formation, pastoral care and relationships and sexuality education, necessarily demand greater levels of alertness in this respect than, for example, many of the other subjects on the curriculum. Building up high levels of trust between external agencies and school management should therefore represent a priority for all.

JMB is aware that the Minister has written to the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, NCCA, to seek a professional review of the landscape of RSE provision in our schools. JMB is encouraged by the scope of this work which will include: how the RSE curriculum is planned, is taught and how parents are involved; the entire curriculum is being taught in schools to a high standard; the role of the classroom teacher in teaching the curriculum and the appropriate levels of supports which are currently being provided by external providers; what time is given to it, what resources are being provided, and what support materials are being used; and how effective is the continuing professional development opportunities which are currently provided by the Department and other bodies to RSE teachers.

JMB will, of course, engage fully with this process and looks forward, in particular, to the subsequent investment of new ideas, energy and resources into this most important of educational enterprises. I thank the committee.