Putting sex on the agenda is easy bit
WHEN it comes to teaching students the rules around sexual consent, the easy part is deciding to put it on the curriculum.
What will be much more challenging is ensuring that all schools take it on board and that teachers are competent and comfortable discussing it with their pupils.
A new legal definition of consent is included in the Sexual Offences Act, which passed into law last year, and gives plenty of scope for teasing out the issues with a room full of curious adolescents.
However, experience of more than 20 years of relationships and sexuality education (RSE) being on the curriculum in Irish schools shows that practice and quality vary.
Although RSE is mandatory at both primary and post-primary level, as recently as 2015 some 11pc of second-level schools were still in the process of developing a policy on it, and 2pc had nothing in place.
At primary school level, 5pc were in development and 1pc had none.
Figures like 1pc and 2pc may seem insignificant, and it doesn’t mean they were not delivering some RSE.
But it does indicate a lack of enthusiasm.
In terms of primary schools, 1pc is about 30 schools – and all the pupils who have gone through their doors over 20-plus years.
At second-level, 2pc would amount to up to 15 schools, and thousands of pupils over the years.
At a hearing of the Oireachtas Committee on the Eighth Amendment last November, Eamonn Moran, a senior official in the Department of Education’s curriculum and assessment policy unit, acknowledged
the challenges to achieving high quality in the provision of RSE across the system.
As well as the schools where an RSE policy has not been developed or where there was insufficient engagement with parents on the policy and programme, he pointed to issues relating to the competency and confidence of teachers.
Shortcomings in the delivery of RSE may be highlighted in school inspection reports.
One recent report on Clonkeen College, a boys’ school in south Dublin, found that while there was a policy for RSE in place, there was no plan for its delivery.
“The evidence accrued during the evaluation indicated that RSE is not delivered in a systematic manner,” the inspectors said.
Inspectors also found that there had been no engagement with continuing professional development (CPD) for teachers of junior cycle social, personal and health education (SPHE), into which RSE fits.
One teacher reported having undertaken CPD for SPHE and RSE some years ago. But they were not currently involved in the delivery of either programme.
Another recent inspection, at the co-educational post primary school Largy College, in Co Cavan, found that the school delivers a comprehensive RSE programme to transition year students and a module for students doing the Leaving Cert Applied.
However, it highlighted “significant weaknesses” around the delivery of RSE for fifth and sixth years.