New sex education curriculum reflects ‘real lived experience,’ says Minister

Minister for Education Norma Foley has said that she believes the new sexual education curriculum published on Tuesday brings the syllabus into “the real lived experience of young people today”.

She was speaking after the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) published a revamped SPHE (social, personal and health education) programme for Junior Cycle students.

Speaking outside the Department of Education, Ms Foley said she was conscious of the “huge amount of young people” accessing pornography on their phones.

“We need our children to be safeguarded, we need them to be protected and we need them to access information in a safe space and not be relying on the mobile phones, this is not the world in which it’s a safe environment for them.

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“The guidelines and the curriculum are very clear. There will be no pornographic material taught or shown in our schools and pornography will not be taught, what will be taught will be respect for yourself, respect for others.”

Last week gardaí were called to Ms Foley’s constituency office in connection with a protest over the teaching of gender identity under the new curriculum.

When asked about this, she said that she absolutely accepts “that people have different views and differing views and always will have, and that’s democracy.

“But I think that the [NCCA] have gone to great, great lengths to hear all voices and to allow all voices to be expressed ... the best decision must be made in the best interest of the students,” she said.

The Department of Education is also funding a diploma postgraduate for staff within schools to have specific training in the areas covered in SPHE, alongside a two-day continuous professional development provision for teachers in the area, but Ms Foley accepted that the department must increase the amount of this training.

The Catholic Education Partnership (CEP) welcomed the publication of the SPHE curriculum specification, with their chief executive Alan Hynes saying that Catholic schools will “engage positively” with it.

He added that they recognise that SPHE is an important part of holistic education.

“The curriculum addresses understanding the self and others, emotional wellbeing, relationship and sexuality education, and on making informed and healthy choices,” Mr Hynes said.

“Catholic schools will seek to propose the Catholic perspective on the full range of the curriculum, in dialogue and encounter with other points of view.”

The move to revamp the SPHE curriculum follows a Government-commissioned review of sex education at primary and second level which found that the 20-year-old syllabus was out of date, too focused on biology and did not reflect the reality of young people’s lives or LGBTQ issues.

The curriculum specification will provide 100 hours of learning over the three-year Junior Cycle for 12-to 15-year-olds, and addresses issues such as self-awareness and self-esteem, emotional wellbeing, use of pornography and issues such as sexual consent.

The final curriculum specification includes some changes from an earlier draft which referred to gender identity being experienced “along a spectrum”.

An updated SPHE curriculum specification will follow for Senior Cycle students at second level in 2024 and at primary level in 2025.