Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Christian meddling?


It's with the usual incredulous feeling today that I read that our awful Education Secretary Nicky Morgan has veto'd yet another sensible idea. Most experts agree that PSHE (Personal, Social, Health and Economic) including SRE (sex and relationships education) education should be made statutory in this country. At the moment very little PSHE is taught and only a tiny fraction of SRE is compulsory.

In making this decision Morgan has ignored the Education Committee, the Home Affairs Committee, the Joint Committee on Human Rights, the Chairs of the Commons Health and Business, Innovation and Skills Committees,  Parliamentarians from across the political spectrum, the Children’s Commissioner, the Chief Medical Officer, the Association for Directors of Public Health, the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, the Association of Independent Local Safeguarding Children Boards Chairs, the NSPCC, two royal societies, six medical royal colleges, over 100 expert bodies, 85% of business leaders, 88% of teachers, 90% of parents and 92% of young people.

With all of this ignoring of experts going on in the department for education at the moment  I think it's fair to question whether this decision has some basis in the practicality or benefit of teaching these subjects or is entirely to do with political and religious meddling in education. Nicky Morgan is a Christian and claims that she has a "Biblical framework" for her work in politics (Leviticus perhaps?) I can't imagine what any such framework would look like, but I can guarantee it's highly cherry-picked. In any case if an MP is using some kind of overarching "framework" to make decisions on behalf of the rest of us against all expert advice, I think we have a right to know what it is!

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