Just as the Scottish Bishops’ Conference <a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/all-reference-to-catholic-schools-deleted-from-new-scottish-sex-ed-curriculum-as-church-wilfully-ignored-by-scottish-government/"><strong>has robustly engaged</strong></a> the Department of Education in Scotland on the removal of protections for Catholic denominational education, the <a href="https://catholiceducation-ni.org"><strong>Catholic Schools' Trustee Service</strong></a> has engaged in the consultative process on Relationship and Sexuality Education in Northern Ireland.
Chaired by Bishop Donal McKeown of Derry, the Catholic Schools' Trustee Service is the sectoral body for, and represents the trustees of the Catholic family of schools. In parallel with the consultation process in Scotland, the window for submissions is open until 24<sup>th</sup> November.
The genesis of the consultation arises from a move by the Secretary of State to Northern Ireland to insert a recommendation from the United Nations Committee on the Ending of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) into legislation.
Notwithstanding that recommendations from UN committees for various conventions do not create a legal responsibility to submit, the speed at which the UK Government responded to impose an essentially sectarian interpretation of the recommendation into Northern Ireland’s legislation is surprising.
Usually such recommendations are taken on board to a limited extent and engaged in civic discourse rather than being adopted wholeheartedly into law.
The recommendation from CEDAW requires the UK government to “make age-appropriate, comprehensive and scientifically accurate education on sexual and reproductive health and rights, a compulsory curriculum component for adolescents, covering early pregnancy prevention and access to abortion, and monitor its implementation”.
In the absence of a functioning government in Northern Ireland, the UK Government has used the vacuum to impose, from abroad, the Education (Northern Ireland) Order 2006 by requiring that “the curriculum for every grant-aided school shall, in relation to key stages 3 and 4, include age-appropriate, comprehensive and scientifically accurate education on sexual and reproductive health and rights, covering prevention of early pregnancy and access to abortion”.
In response, the Catholic Trustees question the practice of inserting recommendations from the UN Committee directly into law as unusual, but understand also the practicalities of engaging with vague and contested wording:
“The incorporation of a UN report directly into UK law was legislatively unusual and makes drafting guidance even more complex. Interpreting what is ‘scientifically accurate’ on sexual and reproductive health brings into play key existential questions on when life begins.
“The expectation that schools should become engaged in the delivery of a curriculum which highlights access to abortion shows no understanding of the foundational principles of Catholic education. Such a situation creates a conflict of rights- educational; religious; and the requirements of CEDAW - and will be a matter for the courts to determine.”
The consultation process underway is not focused on the legislative imposition itself- this was imposed in June 2023 almost unilaterally - but rather looks at the process involved for parents to withdraw children from these classes. The trustees use the consultative process to question the absence of consultation on the original legislation imposed and to highlight the challenge the law poses on trustees to deliver a denominational education.
“What rights does a Catholic school have in promoting its overall vision of life to parents who have chosen to exercise their right to determine their child’s education by sending them to a Catholic school?” the trustees ask.
“It is clear that the road ahead, if this approach is not modified, will be one of continual legal challenge as Catholic schools cannot, in conscience, engage in the promulgation of abortion rights or provide information around accessing such services.”
Speaking about the trustees' submission, Bishop McKeown states: “The background to this consultation is in legislation brought forward by the Secretary of State. This legislation has created significant concern in that it potentially imposes a specific ideological view of abortion and the prevention of early pregnancy which directly challenges the rights of Catholic schools to offer a faith-based worldview on such matters. There is no ethically neutral or value-free approach to the question of when human life begins. The expectation that schools should become engaged in the delivery of an allegedly neutral curriculum which highlights access to abortion shows no understanding of the foundational principles of Catholic education.”
A similar consultative process in the Republic of Ireland closed on the 3 November, where the national curriculum authority invited submissions on changes to the SPHE (Social, Personal and Health Education) curriculum for Senior Cycle students, following a similar process for the junior curriculum. Similar to the changes proposed in Scotland and Northern Ireland, the guidance has a preponderant focus on contested areas and places the onus on Catholic Schools to adopt a secular perspective in areas of moral and ethical formation, incorporating issues such as gender identity into their teaching, with a limited space to provide a Catholic understanding of relationships and sexuality.
<em>(Photograph by Marcin Mazur/Catholicnews.org.uk)</em>
