The present furore about the introduction of relationships and sexuality education (RSE) into our schools would lead you to believe that an entirely new programme is being introduced into Irish schools. However, the fact is that very many schools, at both first and second levels, are already running very good RSE programmes.
"RSE is not new," says Anne Looney, the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment's education officer for social, personal and health education (SPHE). "It's been going on for years." Schools have used a variety of methods of delivering the programmes, including one-off visits from experts and crosscurricular approaches in which religious education, science, home economics and physical education teachers all make contributions, she says. In many instances RSE is included in a broader SPHE programme.
The NCCA's guidelines on RSE recommend that lessons should be delivered within the schools existing SPHE programme. "SPHE deals with issues such as self-esteem, assertiveness, communication and decision-making skills - all of which can contribute to the effectiveness of the RSE programme," say the guidelines.
The big difference is that now the programme will be time-tabled. "A lot of what is going on is carefully planned and of a high standard, but sometimes it can be hit and miss," says Looney. "The guidelines introduce a consistency and the fact that RSE is now time-tabled means that everyone will take it." The new RSE programme is designed to equip young people to evaluate the conflicting messages they are receiving from TV, cinema, the tabloid press and teen magazines.
"It's imperative that something is put in place to counteract the promiscuous agenda of many popular TV programmes and teen magazines," says Pat O'Connor, principal of St Enda's Community School, Limerick. "There has to be a counterbalance and young people must be given positive messages."
According to the NCCA, "the aims of RSE set it firmly within a moral spiritual and social framework . . . it will recognise that sexual behaviour is not just a personal and private matter but has social and community implications as well."
While the guidelines suggest themes for discussion, the culture and ethos of each school will be the determining factors in the programme, Looney says. "No single programme is possible," she says. "Religious schools will want their values informing the programme."
At second level the NCCA suggests three RSE themes - human growth and development, human sexuality and human relationships. At junior cycle, first-year students will examine what makes us all unique and different, friendships, changes at puberty, the male and female reproductive systems, how our concepts of male and female are formed and respecting self and others.
In year two students will learn about human fertility and the development of the foetus from conception to birth, recognising feelings and emotions, peer pressure and other influences, managing relationships, making responsible decisions within a moral framework and health and personal safety. Third year students will examine body image, review their own growth and development, examine what is important in a mature relationship and deal with respect, rights and responsibilities in relationships and with conflict.
The three themes of RSE continue at senior cycle but at a deeper level. Lessons include fertility awareness, family planning, values and relationships, personal integrity, responsible parenthood, sexually transmitted diseases, sexual harassment, gender orientation and discrimination, personal rights and safety, making and keeping and ending relationships, love and commitment and marriage.
Schools say that they anticipate little parental opposition to the programme once the contents are explained to them. "Parents have divergent views but there's nothing that can't be got over," O'Connor says.
However, some schools have found it difficult to recruit sufficient teacher volunteers to carry out the programme, according to Sean McCann, general secretary of the Association of Community and Comprehensive Schools. "Getting people willing to be trained is the biggest issue," he says, "not everyone wants to do it." One of the problems of implementing an RSE programme in schools is that it requires a different teaching style. "It involves relaxed, experiential learning and discussion," O'Connor says, "but this is not easy to do when you have classes of 30."
Hitting the right note in class is a further problem, he says. "If you do it in a simplistic fashion, you may loose your credibility. The students may feel that they know more than you. Some 13-year-olds are reading extremely explicit material and what is acceptable in one home may not be in another. You're no longer dealing with a homogenous society or a homogenous level of knowledge. When there's no clear-cut consensus you have to move very carefully."
