The government was urged in February to allow faith schools to teach sex education in accordance with their religious ethos by councillors in a London borough.
Barnet Council unanimously backed a motion calling for tolerance to be shown to people of faith. This came after the government concluded a ‘call for evidence’ on the new primary school Relationships Education subject, and on secondary school Relationships and Sex Education. A full consultation will follow.
Cllr Brian Gordon, who put forward the motion, said: ‘In the same way children should be taught not to harbour prejudice and hatred and violent desires towards others, tolerance and understanding has to be shown towards people’s religions and their values. It is wrong, and I would say counter-productive, for faith schools to be penalised or marked down for failure to teach particular aspects of sex and sexuality that are counter to their religious ethos.’
