Tory MPS’s Demand That Schools Publish Details About Sex Education Lessons

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has come under pressure from around 70 Conservative MPs to give schools a legal duty to publish the materials used in children’s sex education lessons.

A judge had previously ruled that schools did not have to publish such materials for commercial reasons.

That ruling was made even though the Education Secretary, Gillian Keegan, had written to all schools to say that “parents should be able to view all curriculum materials”, even “where an external agency advises schools that their materials cannot be shared due to restrictions in commercial law”. 

The Telegraph reports: The MPs are backing a “sex education transparency” Private Members’ Bill introduced by Miriam Cates, the MP for Penistone and Stocksbridge, that would force schools to share with parents copies of materials used in lessons.

The legislation would also ban schools in England from using externally produced teaching resources for relationships and sex education lessons that have not been published. 

The Prime Minister addressed the issue at the Conservative conference when he said “it shouldn’t be controversial for parents to know what their children are being taught in school about relationships”. But he has not said how he will make schools share materials with parents.

Mrs Cates introduced the Bill after Clare Page, a parental campaigner, lost a legal battle to see the sex education plan at her daughter’s school. She has been fighting to obtain a copy of the materials since her 15-year-old daughter came home from school two years ago and said she had been taught that “heteronormativity” was “bad” and that she should be “sex positive” towards relationships.

A tribunal judge ruled in June that the commercial interests of the third-party sex education provider outweighed the public interest in forcing the school to release the lesson plan. 

The judge made the ruling despite acknowledging that Gillian Keegan, the Education Secretary, had written to all schools saying that “parents should be able to view all curriculum materials”, including “where an external agency advises schools that their materials cannot be shared due to restrictions in commercial law”.