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Speaker 1: Parents are getting too much of a say on what's

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Speaker 1: being taught on the old sex ed in school. The

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Speaker 1: ERO has done some research reckons there should be less

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Speaker 1: consultation and more explanation instead. In the head of Ro's

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Speaker 1: Educational Evaluation Center, Ruth Schanoda's with us. Hey, Ruth one

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Speaker 1: less consultation or no consultation.

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Speaker 2: What we're saying is who should be requiring schools to

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Speaker 2: inform parents about what they're going to teach and explain

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Speaker 2: it really well. Because we found out that when parents

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Speaker 2: are better informed, they're a lot more comfortable and that's

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Speaker 2: what they want rather than confooting informat explain it and

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Speaker 2: the maketual parents who aren't comfortable with what's been taught

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Speaker 2: are able to take their child out of that class.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so what are we talking about here? What are

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Speaker 1: the things that are sticky? Because it sounded like it

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Speaker 1: might be that the more controversial stuff, right, gender stuff,

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Speaker 1: sexual identity stuff, rather than actually, this is how it

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Speaker 1: all works.

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Speaker 2: So you're right. We were asked by the ministication to

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Speaker 2: review the whole of relationship and sexual education and we

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Speaker 2: found actually nearly all nine out of ten parents and

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Speaker 2: students really support it. Being taught at school, particularly as

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Speaker 2: we're in a more challenging world with those online risks

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Speaker 2: and that the students are now are facing. So there's

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Speaker 2: a lot of supports that have been taught at school,

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Speaker 2: and there's a lot of support for actually been taught

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Speaker 2: more on key subjects because this currictum has been in

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Speaker 2: place since two thousand and seven and the world has

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Speaker 2: changed then. So most parents and students want personal safety

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Speaker 2: and bullying taught earlier. And the third parents want their

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Speaker 2: children to learn more about consent. And then, as you said,

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Speaker 2: there are just some topics where parents have differing views

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Speaker 2: and that makes it really difficult for schools because they're

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Speaker 2: stuck in the middle trying to reconcile that. And that's

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Speaker 2: not really fair on schools.

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Speaker 1: Why do you reacon dads want least sixty than mums.

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Speaker 2: So what we found is that mothers have a stronger

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Speaker 2: focus on sort of safety as their children. We found

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Speaker 2: in this report, so key topics that mothers want to

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Speaker 2: is around consent and ensuring that their kids are safe,

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Speaker 2: that they know the things that they need to know,

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Speaker 2: and that was just less of a focus for fathers.

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Speaker 2: We also found though that boys wanted to learn all

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Speaker 2: topics later than girls year why so some of that

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Speaker 2: we heard from the boys, some of them just mature

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Speaker 2: a little bit later, so they're wanting to learn it

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Speaker 2: when it's more relevant. So that's why we're recommending that

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Speaker 2: we keep teaching it after the age of fourteen.

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Speaker 1: And does that make sense to you, because I mean

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Speaker 1: boys are going online and looking at the you know,

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Speaker 1: you know, the things I shouldn't be looking at from

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Speaker 1: a really young age way before girls.

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Speaker 2: So what we're finding from boys saying is some of

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Speaker 2: those body changes are later, but also girls have got

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Speaker 2: stronger focus on keeping themselves safe. So the things that

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Speaker 2: girls are wanting earlier, in particular were those online safety

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Speaker 2: where they're facing quite a lot of risks that didn't

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Speaker 2: feel the same level for boys. But what they are

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Speaker 2: both saying to us nine out of ten is they

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Speaker 2: want this taught at school and actually on keyo topics

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Speaker 2: that girls and boys agreeing they want it more. And

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Speaker 2: then we recommending we should keep teaching it after fourteen.

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Speaker 2: It's just too early to stop.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Ruth, you are prepared for the pushback you're going

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Speaker 1: to get back again on this side from parents.

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Speaker 2: So actually the parents we spoke to there was a

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Speaker 2: huge support for having it taught, and in those key

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Speaker 2: topics where they're just saying the curriculums a bit out

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Speaker 2: of data, there was a lot of support for some

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Speaker 2: of those topics being spoken earlier. And then parents said

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Speaker 2: they actually want to be more informed. So I think

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Speaker 2: they'll welcome our recommendation that we require schools before they

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Speaker 2: teach it to inform and explain it to parents and

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Speaker 2: make your parents know they're not their child out.

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Speaker 1: More like the parents I tell you now, Ruth, the

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Speaker 1: ticks machines already started up on the say parents will

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Speaker 1: be I imagine quite upset about not being consulted.

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Speaker 2: Don't you think the parents we do were mostly focusing

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Speaker 2: on wanting to be informed. If we had time in

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Speaker 2: a game that parents didn't know what their students were learning,

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Speaker 2: and we found that if they didn't know, they were

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Speaker 2: less comfortable with it. When parents were better informed, they

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Speaker 2: were more comfortable. But it's definitely true that parents also

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Speaker 2: said to us, if it doesn't align with their views,

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Speaker 2: values and faith, they want that ability to take their

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Speaker 2: child out of the class. And we think that's important too.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Hey, listen, good luck of it because I think

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Speaker 1: you're onto something here, but I do think a unied

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Speaker 1: it's some resistance. It's Ruth Shanoda, hit of the ero's

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Speaker 1: Educational Evaluation and Center. For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast,

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Speaker 1: listen live to news talks.

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Speaker 2: It'd be from six am weekdays, or follow the podcast

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