Source: Sexual Wellbeing Aotearoa
Too general and highly fragmented – that’s the verdict from Sexual Wellbeing Aotearoa on the new health and physical education curriculum.
Chief executive Jackie Edmond says she’s disappointed how matters related to relationships and sexuality education are positioned in the new health curriculum. She says some of the issues identified in the earlier draft of the curriculum have been carried through into the new curriculum, particularly the fragmented nature of the information.
“The comprehensive nature of relationships and sexuality education (RSE) has been lost in the new curriculum. An effective RSE curriculum reflects young people’s lives and is relevant to the world in which they live,” Ms Edmond says. “For example, the new curriculum fails to show how the physical, emotional and social dimensions of RSE are deeply interconnected. Evidence shows that effective relationships and sexuality education weaves these factors together – making sense and giving context to these issues rather than treating them as standalone, unrelated concepts. Some key topics, like gender and sexual orientation, are still missing or barely addressed.
“We are also concerned that many of the introduction of relevant topics, such as consent, are too vague in terms of how they relate to sexual and reproductive health issues. The new curriculum spreads sexual and reproductive health topics in particular across Science and Health learning areas, mismatching the year levels that each topic is taught at, which is confusing for young people and fails to capture the topics comprehensively.”
For example:
- Menstruation is explained in the context of pubertal change, including common symptoms associated with periods, in Year 6 Health education, but the details of the menstrual cycle are not covered until Year 8 Biology. It is not clear in the curriculum how to link this knowledge together.
- Basic education around Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) is first mentioned in the health curriculum in Year 10, explaining that they can be transmitted through sexual contact and can affect various body systems. Young people are then being taught the detail about transmission in general in Year 9 Biology, without specifying the link to STIs. Again, it is not clear how to link this knowledge together.
Ms Edmond says foundational areas of RSE are not clearly specified and therefore run the risk of being missed out altogether. This includes teaching the anatomically correct names and functions of the genitals and understanding gender identity and distinguishing it from biological sex.
“Young people have been clear that they want relationships and sexuality education. Failing to include meaningful, comprehensible information on these critical and highly relevant topics puts their health and wellbeing at risk. By fragmenting the content across different parts of the curriculum, critical opportunities to integrate the information are lost,” Ms Edmond says.