News,
22 February 2010
Dear supporter,
Tomorrow (Tue 23 Feb.) is the the final main day (report stage and third reading) in the House of Commons on the government's sex education bill. (The bill has yet to be debated in the House of Lords.) The Conservative opposition has tabled a new amendment (no.60) which seeks to exclude sex and relationships education (SRE) from primary schools.
Please email or telephone your MP
immmediately to urge him/her to (a) sign and support amendments 2 and 60, tabled the Conservative opposition for report-stage (see below for more info) and (b) vote against the bill as a whole at third reading. (A widely-reported government amendment on sex education in faith schools is mere window-dressing - see SPUC's 19 Feb. media release
http://is.gd/8Iviv )
What you need to know (updated):
- The government's Children, Schools and Families bill http://is.gd/6JIGE would force all state schools to provide sex and relationships education (SRE) for all primary and secondary school pupils.
- The government want SRE to include signposting and links to abortion and other anti-life/anti-family services in schools, including faith schools.
- The bill would force schools to teach SRE according to principles of "equality", "diversity" and "rights".
- The government's draft SRE guidance http://is.gd/8bgB6 interprets those principles to include abortion, birth control, homosexuality and "a wide range of [sexual] practices".
- Schools, if challenged, May well have to prove their SRE programmes accord with the bill's principles and that they had "regard" to the government's anti-life guidance.
- Faith schools may argue that they are entitled to protect their ethos, but the government has demanded that schools accept its sexual health agenda. The government says schools may adapt "the way things are taught", but it insists that all aspects of SRE will have to be delivered in all schools.
- Conservative opposition amendment no. 2 would delete the bill's proposed SRE principles of "equality", "diversity" and "rights". Amendment no. 60 seeks to exclude SRE from primary schools. Whilst these amendments are neither perfect nor comprehensive, they seek to lessen the damage of the sex education proposals. Please ask your MP to show his concern by signing these amendments (which will increase the chance of their being selected for debate) as well as opposing the Bill as a whole.
You can contact your MP by:
- email via http://www.spuc.org.uk/mps
- post to House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA
- telephone via the parliamentary switchboard on (020) 7219 3000.
Please forward any replies you receive to SPUC by:
More information can be found in:
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