Balls drops compulsory sex education reform
- April 9, 2010
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Keywords:
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- education
- government
- reforms
- sex
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Balls expresses deep regret as key education reforms are shelved to push the Children, Schools and Families Bill through parliament before the general election
Key reforms including compulsory sex education, one-to-one tuition, school report cards and home school agreements, which would have given head teachers stronger power in enforcing parent responsibility for their children, have all been dropped.
Catch-up lessons and small group support have also been dropped along with plans to reform the primary school curriculum.
In a letter from Ed Balls to Conservative shadow Michael Gove, he showed his disappointment as the loss of a number of key provisions would have made a serious difference to the lives of children and their families. He said:
"It is a great pity that you have put at risk improvements in our schools, support for pupils, and the wellbeing of our young people."
Mr Gove claims that Conservatives were in favour of making sex education compulsory but respected the rights of parents to withdraw children if they so wanted:
"The government refused to allow parents to withdraw children under the age of consent from any sex education they considered inappropriate."
