Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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I thank the Minister of State for taking this matter on behalf of the Minister for Education. This week we heard reports of a school that, in correspondence with the parents its students, stated its relationships and sexuality education, RSE, programme will not include contraception or LGBTQI+ relationships, or what it called "same sex friendships". I will quote from the letter that was sent from that school to the parents, although I do not want to personalise the issue. While this school made the newspapers in this instance, similar issues are happening in schools throughout the country. The letter states:

Teachers do not cover topics such as contraception and same sex friendships. Children who ask questions in class on content outside the designated curriculum are encouraged to discuss the issue with their parents.

I reiterate this is not an isolated problem. Schools are caught between the power of their patrons and the needs of their students.

We have a role as legislators and we are failing to support schools to prioritise the needs and rights of their students to access adequate, age-appropriate RSE, not to mention the right of staff members in schools to be able to teach without fear and without feeling at odds with the patron of their school because of their sexual orientation. The Irish National Teachers Organisation's, INTO, equality survey report of 2020 found that only 18% of respondents from the Republic of Ireland and 12% of respondents from the North were able to be out to their school communities in terms of whom they love and engage with over the weekends.

In 2017, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights published an issue paper on women's sexual and reproductive health and rights. It included recommendations for the provision of comprehensive sex education that was mainstream, mandatory, standardised and scientifically accurate. This is not happening in our country. Instead, poor sex education has become a rite of passage in Ireland, with seemingly little political will to change that or to vindicate the rights of our young people.

I expect the response of the Minister of State will highlight the work of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, NCCA, over recent years in respect of RSE, but that work will be redundant if we do not address the issue of school ethos. Every student in the country has a right to, and deserves, accurate and age-appropriate RSE, and every teacher has the right to be able to express himself or herself in the staff room in terms of instructions. We in the Social Democrats brought forward a Bill last year seeking to standardise relationships and sexuality education in our schools, in response to which the Minister for Education told us it would be brought back before the House after nine months for a Second Reading, although I am not confident that will be the case. While I fully appreciate it is not a matter for the Minister of State's Department, I will be interested to hear his response in that regard.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this issue and allowing me to address the matter. The Minister for Education regrets being unable to attend the debate because she is fulfilling a long-standing commitment to speak at the annual conference of the Joint Managerial Body Secretariat of Secondary Schools.

Access to relationships and sexuality education is an important right for students. This is reflected in the programme for Government, which states the Government will develop inclusive and age-appropriate curriculums for RSE and social, personal and health education, SPHE, in primary and post-primary schools. Social, personal and health education is a mandatory curriculum subject in all primary schools and in the post-primary junior cycle, while RSE is required at all levels in schools, from primary through to the senior cycle. All schools are required to have an RSE policy that has been developed in consultation with the school community, including school management, parents, teachers and students, as appropriate. A school's programme for RSE is developed and taught in the context of the school's RSE policy. In addition, schools are required to teach all aspects of the RSE programme, including family planning, sexually transmitted infections and sexual orientation. The ethos of the school should never preclude learners from acquiring knowledge about these issues.

The NCCA was requested to conduct a review of RSE provision in our schools, focusing on a range of topics including healthy and positive sexual expression and relationships and LGBTQ+ matters. The NCCA published a report on the review of relationships and sexual education in primary and post-primary schools in December 2019. This report resulted in the NCCA establishing two development groups, for primary and post-primary, to oversee the work of the developing and updated curriculum materials in this area and supporting the development of guidance materials for schools. The immediate focus of the NCCA’s work has been on creating support materials for teachers as part of an interim guidance toolkit.This toolkit aims to support effective teaching and learning of SPHE and RSE and to deepen teachers' understanding and skills in addressing important and sensitive topics. The NCCA toolkit will be expanded in 2022 to include further age- and stage-appropriate guidance for teachers on how to address these topics within the SPHE classroom.

In tandemwith this work, preparation for the broader redeveloping and updating of the SPHE curriculum has begun. Updated curriculums will be developed for primary, the junior cycle and the senior cycle. A draft revised junior cycle specification is due to be agreed at the NCCA council in early summer, with a public consultation to follow when schools return in September. The final revised specification is due to have been completed by the end of 2022 and rolled out in schools from September 2023. In redeveloping the SPHE curriculum, the NCCA will make explicit the importance of fostering young people's self-awareness and self-esteem and developing the foundational skills and dispositions needed for building caring and healthy relationships, including respectful communication, showing empathy and appreciating difference.

Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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Before I comment on the Minister of State's response, which was in line with what I had expected, I might ask him a question in respect of his role in the Department of Justice. Where does he foresee the provision of RSE in the combating of gender-based violence? In the cross-departmental work being carried out by the Minister for Justice, the fourth pillar is education. Does the Minister of State foresee that being implemented through the RSE programme? I raised this issue yesterday with the Taoiseach, who replied that the key solutions related to the provision of continuing professional development, CPD, and the updating and modernisation of the curriculum, which I welcome, but there will be a massive oversight if we do not address the issue of ethos and the ability of patrons to dedicate what kind of RSE is taught within their school. That is where the issue lies. It is why there are programmes such as Flourish, why some teachers cannot express the manner in which they love and are fearful in the staff room, and why events keep taking place in which it is highlighted schools are not providing the appropriate level of RSE.

The issue that happened in a school in Wicklow, which was reported in the media this week, is the exact same as the issue highlighted by the NCCA in its report on the review of RSE in schools from 2019. The report states:

[In primary schools] school ethos was seen to pose challenges in opening up discussion about different kinds of families and same-sex relationships, or in responding to questions that arise about contraception in the context of learning about conception. Principals expressed this as a disconnect between what they felt was expected of them based on their school ethos and addressing the reality of the classroom and the needs of their pupils.

Summarising the issue in the report, a primary school principal was quoted as stating:

Ethos is used as an excuse (not to teach certain topics/areas). We have a pastoral Christian ethos and teach within that framework.

This will continue to happen if we do not balance the rights of children to access fact-based, health-led and inclusive RSE against the power of school ethos.

As I mentioned, the Social Democrats brought forward a Bill in November 2021 that aimed to do just this. The Bill, developed with the Oireachtas Office of Parliamentary Legal Advisers will not affect ethos but balance it against the rights of the child in order that in the first teaching of RSE, it will be from a standardised curriculum that takes an “evidence-informed approach” based on UNESCO’s international technical guidance on sexuality education. The Bill was not opposed by the Government or the Minister but was delayed by nine months. It is essential she stick to her promise and allow that Bill to come back before the House.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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In respect of the Department of Justice, the Minister, Deputy McEntee, is leading the work on a new, whole-of-government approach to develop a strategy to combat domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. As the Deputy will be aware, that plan has set an overall goal of a zero-tolerance approach. The Minister is working to finalise the strategy for submission to the Government in light of the submissions received in this final consultative phase, which ended last month. She intends to bring both the finalised strategy and the accompanying action plan, which will set out her Department's perspective, to the Government in the coming weeks.

In respect of the Minister for Education, I will certainly relay the Deputy's concerns to her attention as soon as she returns. The work in redeveloping and updating the RSE and SPHE curriculums is being undertaken within the curriculum development structures of the NCCA, and there will be opportunities for public and stakeholder engagement in this process. As part of the review of RSE, an extensive consultation occurred, feedback was facilitated through an online survey, written submissions, round-table meetings and large events, and the adjustments that were made to the final report reflected a stronger focus on the issues stakeholders wished to see highlighted. These included gender discrimination, sexual violence and pornography. The report did not set out an exhaustive list of the topics that will be included in any future SPHE-RSE curriculum or details on how any specific topic might be taught or contextualised.

The Department of Education and the NCCA welcome further stakeholder engagement in that process, particularly when the updated curriculum becomes available for public consultation in September. The Department of Education continues to work closely with the NCCA to determine the approach that would best give effect to the commitment in the programme for Government on this important issue. Should this work identify legislative changes as being needed, the Government is committed to making these changes, as set out in the programme for Government.