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Visit to NW Catholic school convinced academic sex ed can be carried out effectively within Catholic ethos
Derry Journal
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31/01/2025
Visit to NW Catholic school convinced academic sex ed can be carried out effectively within Catholic ethos
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00:00
I suppose one of the criticisms that we have heard, particularly from young people, is
00:06
that the delivery of RASE across schools is inconsistent. In some schools, it's done
00:13
very well. In others, it's done very poorly, or not at all. So we have that issue of inconsistency.
00:22
But also related to that is the fact that we have heard from witnesses here at this
00:28
inquiry, particularly from those of a faith background, who say they're quite happy to
00:34
teach an RASE or to deliver an RASE curriculum, but they want to overlay it with their own
00:41
moral framework. So first of all, do you think that is possible? And secondly, how do you
00:51
get around that particular issue, if that in itself leads to inconsistency? Thanks.
01:00
It's a really interesting question, and I'm tempted to answer with an anecdote of when I
01:07
conducted this fieldwork all these years ago, I went to a Catholic school in the North West
01:11
in Northern Ireland, and there for the first time I spoke to the RE teacher, who in that particular
01:16
secondary Catholic school, the teacher was responsible for RASE delivery. And in the
01:21
interview with me, she said to me that for the first time they had two 15-year-old girls who
01:27
were pregnant. And in the past, that meant that they had to leave the school. They were taken
01:33
out of school, out of sight. Now, for the first time, this teacher, they said, we have to think
01:37
about this, whether this is the right thing to do. And she came very much from the child-centered
01:40
approach, you know, what do these young girls need? And she said, as Catholics, we also have
01:45
to remember there's forgiveness. Now, they may have not acted in the way that the Catholic school,
01:50
the moral compass that was delivered in that school, suggested they should, i.e., have sex
01:55
not before they're married. But they felt that we can deal with that. So what I'm saying to you is
02:01
that, yes, this argument always is forwarded, that we can't do that because it has to be taught
02:07
within the ethos of the school. But the ethos of the school is not a fortress. It can change.
02:12
And what I'm saying is, we can think about, as long as we think about what is really
02:19
the needs of the young person that we're looking at, which is the responsibility of the teachers
02:23
to do that, we can find a way to do both. I'm not suggesting, advocating that we should replace
02:32
the religious ethos-based sex education with an agnostic or atheist relationship
02:41
in sexuality education, even though I identify as an atheist. And that's not what I'm proposing.
02:46
That's why I said very clearly, I think there is a way to deliver a relationship of sexuality
02:52
education that meets Northern Ireland's needs and conditions as a society, but also puts at
02:57
the center of all of that the children's needs. And I think, for me, that moment was a moment where
03:03
a penny dropped where I felt it's possible to deliver a relationship of sexuality education
03:09
in a Catholic ethos, in a Catholic sector, but still at the same time look after the children's young people.
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