The truth about the ‘ban’ on sex education

Increasingly, it feels like the Tories want to distract from their looming defeat by doing everything they can to keep everyone in a constant state of outrage. Their latest target: sex education. There has been much talk over the past couple of days about the government’s plan to ‘ban’ sex education for under nine-year-olds, as well as teaching about gender identity, in an attempt to stop students from being ‘exposed to disturbing content’.

Talk of a ‘ban’ is misplaced. Firstly, the government isn’t actually banning anything; it is merely issuing new ‘guidance’. Secondly, any new guidance is completely unnecessary because, well, there isn’t actually any sex education on the curriculum currently for under-nines. Sex education is not compulsory for primary schools; relationships education is. By the end of primary school, children need to have been taught about issues such as bullying, being safe online and in the real world, and what healthy friendships look like.