Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the recommendations of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Education and Skills report on relationships and sexuality education. The report comes after a process of events and where RSE was highlighted by consent marches and protests which took place after some high-profile sexual assault and rape trials. The passing of the marriage equality referendum several years ago brought forward demands for change, as did the passing of the repeal of the eighth amendment, the coming about of the #MeToo social media phenomenon, along with the growing intolerance of women, minorities and others to accept discrimination. Solidarity moved a Bill on sex education in 2018.

This area is going to become a target for certain political forces. I have noticed that following the repeal of the eighth amendment being off the agenda, some right-wing and religious fundamentalist groups are now targeting the area of sex education and oppose any change or progress in it. I certainly have had some communication in that regard. They tend to focus on sex and gender. However, RSE is about healthy relationships, interacting with others, dealing with difficult situations and much more. It is a subject which should be taught from the first stage in primary school right up to the leaving certificate. It is not just about sexuality.

As the report points out the current curriculum was developed in 1999. It is not the curriculum itself that is the problem but the fact that it is not even being delivered. There have been rapid changes in society in those past 20 years. There have been major advances for the LGBTQ community and their rightful acceptance in society. In every single classroom there are students who are LGBT+ but who are not, in most cases, affirmed by the curriculum. Their experience is still “other” in the curriculum. Gender is not dealt with in an adequate way. There is a focus on binary gender with trans, non-binary and gender fluid people not taken into account. All this increases the feelings of isolation such people will feel. The RSE curriculum has to deal with issues such as gender identity, the diversity of sexual orientation to prepare young people for their lives and send a clear message that LGBT+ people are a normal part of human society.

Consent is a significant issue across the world. In South Africa, massive protests have taken place against sexual violence. In Latin America, we have had the Ni Una Menosmovement. Practically in every country in the world, the issue of consent has become a major one. The committee’s report comes after a series of hearings, the #MeToo movement and protests that occurred last year following the Belfast rape trial. We also had the thong issue when #ThisIsNotConsent trended worldwide. Sexual harassment is no longer going to be tolerated by women and others who have experienced it. In the past week, I have been involved in assisting women who suffered sexual harassment from landlords and letting agents to speak out without shame or stigma. Where there is a massive power imbalance, abuse and harassment can flourish. We need to educate people about this to ensure they can deal with it and prevent it from becoming an issue.

The Union of Students in Ireland, USI, and student unions across the country have been campaigning for consent lessons in third level colleges. They have taken the initiative themselves in many cases, running consent courses for students. Obviously, they can never be compulsory because it does away with the whole idea of consent. The point is that these should be funded to allow every college and third level institution to have those classes available to people. The work being done is necessary because of the major gap which existed at second level education for so long. Young people are coming into third level education with ideas that are backward and not correct. Many students are coming from sex-segregated secondary schools where there was insufficient education around this issue. We need to put consent at the heart of the RSE curriculum to allow it to become widely accepted in society.

When I was a teacher, I had to teach RSE. I apologise that when I say “I had to” it sounds like a chore. However, that is how many teachers feel. Many of them feel ill-equipped to teach this subject because there is no training. It is in-service training and one relies on one’s wits. It is not easy to engage with teenagers or young people on these topics without a massive improvement in training. We need teachers to be fully trained in this area. The report asks for that. I am not opposed to outside groups coming into schools to assist but there must be some level of checks of these groups. We need to develop this proposal further. We need teachers to be properly trained as they are in other subjects.

While I was campaigning for the repeal of the eighth amendment last year, it was common for young people to approach us to outline the problems they had experienced with regard to sex education in schools. The issue of abortion, for example, would have been covered in schools in line with a religious ethos. Generally speaking, it was a taboo subject and not mentioned in schools. It was certainly not taught in a factual and informative way. This must change now as the law has changed. We have to allow people discussion and information on abortion. Due to the religious ethos in many schools, this has not happened, however.

We did not have the text, so perhaps I can stand corrected, but is the Minister going to act on recommendation No. 15 of the report which states: “The committee recommends that the necessary legislative amendments required to remove the role of ethos as a barrier to the objective and factual delivery of the RSE...”. The key problem is that we could design a brilliant course for which teachers could get trained. However, if a board of management chooses, and this can definitely happens with Catholic schools or other religious schools – there are Protestant or Muslim schools now – it may wish to prevent the full teaching and delivery of the curriculum.

Will the Minister amend the Education Act 1998 which places a legal obligation on the Minister to factor in the ethos that exists when setting the curriculum and which allow school boards to state that something is out of character with the ethos of their school? I would be fearful. We cannot merely rely on this to happen. Any legislative power that some people can resort to, who are narrow-minded, conservative or whatever and who do not want young people getting this information, would be a real, serious mistake.

We have the full Dáil approval for our Bill because it was passed on Second Stage. A committee, which was an all-party committee, now essentially agrees that this is necessary. I have not heard the Minister state that he will move and lift a spurious money message off this Bill. A money message is only meant to be used to prevent the Opposition bringing significant costs on the State. These would be incidental expenses, if they exist at all. In fact, teachers are meant to have teacher training as part of their general employment in any case. Those are questions that the Minister must answer if he really welcomes the report and intends to deliver on it. It recommends that this be done by the end of the year. Can the Minister give us a commitment on that?

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