Mike Hedges AM welcomes Welsh Government announcement to make inclusive education a reality

Mike Hedges AM welcomes Welsh Government announcement to make inclusive education a reality

Local Labour AM Mike Hedges  has applauded the Welsh Labour Government’s landmark move that will make Relationships and Sexuality Education a statutory part of Wales’ new curriculum.

Thirty years ago the regressive Section 28 was introduced by the Thatcher government into schools across Wales, England and Scotland and sought to ban the ‘promotion of homosexuality’, but this week the Welsh Government has announced that LGBT+ inclusive Relationship and Sexuality Education (RSE) will be taught in schools.

Mike Hedges AM said: “I am proud that the Welsh Labour Government is leading the way in promoting inclusivity and diversity in our schools.”

“I hope this major step forward in the curriculum will go a long way in helping us challenge stereotypes, tackle ignorance and ensure our young people have the knowledge and skills to develop healthy relationships as they go through life.”

RSE will places an emphasis on forming and maintaining healthy, happy and fulfilling relationships. At present it is down to schools to decide their approach to the subject and this sometimes doesn’t stretch beyond the biological aspects of human relationships.

Learners will also be given a much broader understanding of sexuality that is fully inclusive of LGBTQI+ learners and includes wider issues such as consent, domestic abuse and respecting diversity.

The decision to change the focus of this area of study to relationships and sexuality, as well as the decision to make it statutory, reflects its immense importance in terms of how learners understand themselves, each other, their community and society.

Wales’ new curriculum will be in place by 2022, RSE will become statutory from the age of 5 to 16, but learners will not be taught about topics for which they are not developmentally ready.