Education Minister Norma Foley has stressed that pornography will not be shown or taught in schools as part of the new Junior Cert sex-ed programme.
The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) published the long-awaited details of the new Social Personal and Health Education (SPHE) programme for Junior Cert students today.
The four main pillars of the programme will be “understanding myself and others”, “emotional wellbeing”, “making health choices” and “relationships and sexuality”.
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It will teach students to “appreciate the breadth of what constitutes human sexuality, and how sexual orientation and gender identity are experienced and expressed in diverse ways”.
The new programme will also “discuss the influence of popular culture and the online world, in particular, the influence of pornography, on young people’s understanding, expectations and social norms in relation to sexual expression”.
However, Minister Foley stressed that children will not be shown porn as part of their lessons.
There had been several demonstrations, including at Minister Foley’s constituency office, over suggestions that pornography would be shown on the course.
She said: “I want to be very, very clear, and the guidelines and the curriculum are very clear, there would be no pornographic material taught or shown in our schools. Pornography will not be taught.
“What will be taught will be respect for yourself, respect for others. Happy, well-adjusted, contented young people.”
Ms Foley said that she “accepts” that people will have different views on the matter but argued that the NCCA is made up of parents and schools and also ran a consultation process on the new programme.
She added: “We know from studies, for example, I'm conscious that in the last while a National University of Galway produced a study, which showed that a huge percentage of our young people are accessing pornography on our phones.
“Between 10 and 13 years of age is the first time where boys, in particular, are saying that they're accessing pornography.
“We need our children to be safeguarded, we need them to be protected.
“We need them to access information in a safe space and not to be relying on their mobile phones.”
The programme will also contain modules on “identifying signs of healthy, unhealthy and abusive relationships”, “appreciate the importance of seeking, giving and receiving consent in sexual relationships, from the perspective of building caring relationships and from a legal perspective” and “investigate how unhealthy products such as nicotine, vapes, alcohol, and unhealthy food and drinks are marketed and advertised”.
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