Broken election promise

What's the hold up?

Press release 2 April 2024

Broken election promise; Unscientific beliefs taught as fact; Puberty blockers banned in England.

“Parents across the country are disappointed to see a key election promise has not been reflected in the government’s latest 100 day plan,” says Fern Hickson, spokesperson for Resist Gender Education.

“While addressing important concerns such as literacy and teacher training in the 100 day plan, it is notable that the government has placed more importance on re-introducing charter schools than meeting its promise to rewrite the Relationships and Sexuality Education Guide.”

This RSE guide provides recommendations to schools and teachers on how to teach RSE and in October 2023, Erica Stanford, now the Minister of Education, promised to “deal” with it.

“I am going to deal with the RSE document that was put out to our schools. It was confusing. It was put out in the absence of a proper curriculum. People are interpreting it as a curriculum. It is not a curriculum and I think there has been a lot of confusion…” she said.

The coalition agreement in November 2023 made a commitment to “Refocus the curriculum on academic achievement and not ideology, including the removal and replacement of the gender, sexuality, and relationship-based education guidelines.”

Parents are asking, what is the hold up?

“The longer the current RSE Guide is in place, the more harm it can cause,” says Hickson. “Last month in England the National Health Service (NHS) announced it would no longer be routinely prescribing puberty blockers to minors after a review found there was not enough evidence they are safe or effective.

Yet our RSE Guide for Years 1-8 (p28) recommends that students consider variations in puberty, including the role of hormone blockers. The Guide suggests children be taught that puberty is a disorder that can be avoided with medication, rather than the natural and necessary progression it is from childhood to adulthood.”

Resist Gender Education was formed by parents, educators, and others to counter the alarming beliefs contained in the RSE Guide. These include the unscientific notions that sex is “assigned at birth”, that “biological sex has been constructed”, and that there are “three sexes – male, female, and intersex.”

“We call on this government to urgently make good its promise to replace the RSE Guide,” says Hickson. “Protecting our children from this unscientific dogma ought to be a priority for the Education Minister.”