'Sex and relationships' education experiment in our schools must be scrapped

It’s time to end the social experiment of ‘sex and relationships’ lessons in schools. 

Of all Britain’s public institutions, our schools carry a uniquely important responsibility. Their role is to impart to children the knowledge and understanding that will equip them to become the workers and leaders of the future. 

In the past, the boundaries between school and home were well understood. Teachers, respected for their academic expertise, delivered a curriculum based on facts and knowledge that had stood the test of time. 

The role of parents and the wider family was to raise children with sound moral values and train them in the attitudes and behaviours they need to become law-abiding and responsible citizens. Of course the efforts of parents to socialise their children has always been reinforced by schools, but it used to be understood that parents had primary authority over their children and the right to bring them up according to their own beliefs. 

Yet in recent years the boundaries between home and school have become blurred. Schools have increasingly been asked to teach emerging political theories in the place of established facts.

Learning the names of capital cities has been replaced by geography lessons on ‘sustainability’. The history syllabus has been ‘decolonised’. Even the maths curriculum has been used to promote gender ideology. Often these contested theories are at odds with the values and beliefs of parents, and are taught without their consent. 

The blurring of the boundaries between home and schools undermines the authority of both teachers’ and parents and leaves children confused. Nowhere is this more evident than in the teaching of Relationships Health and Sex Education (RSHE), a ‘subject’ that was made compulsory in 2020 but has no curriculum, facts or knowledge-base.

RSHE has been hijacked by activist groups to push a radical agenda of social change, taking advantage of teachers who have no academic credentials in this area. Worse, RSHE has been used as a vehicle to expose children to sexually explicit and age inappropriate material, often without parents’ knowledge. 

There is no evidence that RSHE is beneficial. Of course children should be taught the biological facts about sex and reproduction and the law. But it is the responsibility of parents - not schools - to pass on sensitive moral values. Schools should focus on teaching established knowledge rather than faddish ideologies that will no doubt be out of fashion before too long.  

• Miriam Cates is a former Conservative Party MP