Visit to NW Catholic school convinced academic sex ed can be carried out effectively within Catholic ethos

Transcript

00:00I suppose one of the criticisms that we have heard, particularly from young people, is

00:06that the delivery of RASE across schools is inconsistent. In some schools, it's done

00:13very well. In others, it's done very poorly, or not at all. So we have that issue of inconsistency.

00:22But also related to that is the fact that we have heard from witnesses here at this

00:28inquiry, particularly from those of a faith background, who say they're quite happy to

00:34teach an RASE or to deliver an RASE curriculum, but they want to overlay it with their own

00:41moral framework. So first of all, do you think that is possible? And secondly, how do you

00:51get around that particular issue, if that in itself leads to inconsistency? Thanks.

01:00It's a really interesting question, and I'm tempted to answer with an anecdote of when I

01:07conducted this fieldwork all these years ago, I went to a Catholic school in the North West

01:11in Northern Ireland, and there for the first time I spoke to the RE teacher, who in that particular

01:16secondary Catholic school, the teacher was responsible for RASE delivery. And in the

01:21interview with me, she said to me that for the first time they had two 15-year-old girls who

01:27were pregnant. And in the past, that meant that they had to leave the school. They were taken

01:33out of school, out of sight. Now, for the first time, this teacher, they said, we have to think

01:37about this, whether this is the right thing to do. And she came very much from the child-centered

01:40approach, you know, what do these young girls need? And she said, as Catholics, we also have

01:45to remember there's forgiveness. Now, they may have not acted in the way that the Catholic school,

01:50the moral compass that was delivered in that school, suggested they should, i.e., have sex

01:55not before they're married. But they felt that we can deal with that. So what I'm saying to you is

02:01that, yes, this argument always is forwarded, that we can't do that because it has to be taught

02:07within the ethos of the school. But the ethos of the school is not a fortress. It can change.

02:12And what I'm saying is, we can think about, as long as we think about what is really

02:19the needs of the young person that we're looking at, which is the responsibility of the teachers

02:23to do that, we can find a way to do both. I'm not suggesting, advocating that we should replace

02:32the religious ethos-based sex education with an agnostic or atheist relationship

02:41in sexuality education, even though I identify as an atheist. And that's not what I'm proposing.

02:46That's why I said very clearly, I think there is a way to deliver a relationship of sexuality

02:52education that meets Northern Ireland's needs and conditions as a society, but also puts at

02:57the center of all of that the children's needs. And I think, for me, that moment was a moment where

03:03a penny dropped where I felt it's possible to deliver a relationship of sexuality education

03:09in a Catholic ethos, in a Catholic sector, but still at the same time look after the children's young people.