The Irish Congress of Trade Unions reiterates its call for agreed age-appropriate content for Relationships and Sexuality Education which addresses the issues of domestic abuse and healthy relationships.
The conflict between the NI Secretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris and faith groups over the government’s duty to provide compulsory and comprehensive RSE is overshadowed by its absence in too many schools across all school sectors,
said Alan Law, chair of the NIC-ICTU Education Trade Union Group.
The news from NI regularly features stories of horrifying violence aimed at women and girls, and we as educators must take partial responsibility for the attitudes prevalent across our society. The trade unions representing all staff in our schools call for specialist training and support for and support staff that enables and equips them to deliver a Relationships and Sexuality Education curriculum which addresses the needs of this society and empowers our young people to make informed choices and effect change in their own lives.
We cannot continue to adapt a ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ approach to these matters while women and girls face abuse and harassment, and while LGBT+ students find themselves in the middle of a culture war concocted by the far right. Schools can be safe spaces for all young people, as well as practitioners of scientifically-led education for balanced and informed views on relationships and sexuality.
Also supporting the case for comprehensive RSE, Maxine Murphy-Higgins, chair of the NIC-ICTU Women’s Committee added that
Congress policy agreed at repeated delegate conferences affirms that schools should be places of safety and must be supported in tackling the problem of sexual harassment or violence towards both pupils or staff.
This position is affirmed by the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission which has carried out an investigation and published a report into RSE. Among a number of recommendations, the NIHRC recommends that the Education (Curriculum Minimum Content) Order (NI) 2007 is amended to reflect the CEDAW Committee recommendation 86(d) to ‘make age- appropriate, comprehensive and scientifically accurate education on sexual and reproductive health and rights a compulsory component of curriculum for adolescents, covering prevention of early pregnancy and access to abortion, and monitor its implementation.’
In recent years, trade unions have supported students and staff who have been subject to harassment such as up-skirting and have lobbied MLAs in Stormont successfully for the strongest legislation in relation to up-skirting and down-blousing in these islands.
added Ms Murphy-Higgins
The next stage ought to be robust training for all staff and governors on the continuum of sexual harassment and violence to develop a shared understanding of what constitutes harmful sexual behaviour and how to address it within the school context. Such training should underpin a whole school approach to safeguarding that supports teachers and support staff in challenging attitudes and dispositions that normalise a culture of sexual harassment and abuse.
