Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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538. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if work commenced in March 2020 on the development of interim guidance to support the teaching of social, personal and health education, SPHE, and relationships and sexual education, RSE, at primary and post-primary levels; the status of the guidance; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18935/20]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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In April 2018, my predecessor as Minister for Education and Skills Mr. Richard Bruton asked the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) to undertake a major review of Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE) in schools across all stages of education.

The Report on the Review of Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE) in primary and post-primary schools, published by the NCCA in December, 2019, recommended the development of a single integrated curriculum for RSE and Social, Personal and Health Education (SPHE) in schools. The NCCA will commence this work in the first half of 2021 and it will include a public consultation process.

Among the other recommendations in the NCCA report is the development and publication in the shorter term of interim guidelines to support the teaching in primary and post-primary schools of SPHE/RSE. The Council has been progressing this work and it is expected that interim guidance material, in the form of an online user-friendly toolkit of support materials and examples, will be ready towards the end of this year, and will be added to incrementally.