LAST UPDATE | 18 Jul 2022

JUNIOR CYCLE STUDENTS will be taught about how to recognise the signs of domestic and gender-based violence and the risks of sharing sexual images under a new syllabus for SPHE classes, according to the Minister for Education.

A revised SPHE (Social, Personal and Health Education) curriculum is expected to come into schools next year after several years of development with a view to modernising a subject that has not been significantly updated in decades – before students had regular access to social media and phones.

New or updated features of the syllabus include a focus on emotional wellbeing, gender, how to be safe online, the risks and consequences of sharing sexual images, and online pornography.

The Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland (ASTI) has welcomed the changes, saying it is crucial that SPHE is in tune with how students live their lives in the digital age.

Moira Leyden, the ASTI’s assistant general secretary, told The Journal: “Given that the current curriculum was introduced in 2000, such changes are long overdue. Society has changed dramatically in the intervening 20+ years – as evidenced in the marriage equality referendum as well as significant changes in legislation and state policy around diversity and equality, in particular gender equality.

“The pervasiveness of social media has significantly altered the situation for adolescents in terms of establishing their sense of self and giving them cognitive and social skills to navigate increasingly complex social and personal worlds.”

The ASTI also said today that typical class sizes in Irish schools were too large for teaching SPHE, and called for sufficient resources to allow classes to be split in half for this subject.

Leyden said: “Class sizes of 25 to 30 students are utterly unsuitable for teaching the many complex issues that arise in SPHE/RSE classes.

“Small groups offers students the opportunity to ask questions and make comments that are not normally accommodated by large group teaching contexts.”

The Children’s Rights Alliance has also welcomed the new curriculum. Its CEO Tanya Ward said: “Children and young people are growing up in a complex social environment and we have to make sure that they have the right toolkit to navigate it.

“It is welcome that there is a core focus on supporting young people to understand the physical, social and emotional changes during adolescence.

“Bullying is often named as the one number issue blighting children’s and young people’s experience in school. The curriculum also aims to deal with gender stereotyping and discrimination based on race and sexual orientation.”

Minister for Education Norma Foley said that it will cover “all areas of wellbeing, making healthy choices, relationships and sexuality, emotional wellbeing and understanding myself and others”.

Speaking on RTÉ Radio One’s Morning Ireland, the minister said that the current syllabus is more than 20 years old.

“We live in a very different world now and we know that I suppose we are conscious that our students live every day with their mobile phones, they’re accessing information via their mobile phones and we need to ensure that the information they do get is expert information, is information that is supportive of them, that will give them the tools to meet the challenges of this fast-changing and complex world,” Foley said.

“For example, we are conscious that in the last number of months, we’ve had very clear and frank discussions on domestic and gender-based violence and the national strategy has been launched and [there is] absolute determination to pursue a zero-tolerance approach.

“Now to do that, education must play a role and we need to empower our students not to accept domestic and gender-based violence, to recognise the attitudes that underpin it, and importantly to call it out when they see it.”

She said a key component will be the safe use of social media and the internet, including the potential impacts on relationships and self-esteem.

“There will be a focus on discussing how to share personal information, opinions, and emotions in a safe, respectful manner online, to examine the risks and consequences of sharing sexual images online, and looking at issues of pornography, the objectifying of women and all of that.

And all of it done in a safe environment, ensuring that our young people are being given the skills we need to tackle a reality that is a feature of life today and an access that they have via their mobile phones that wasn’t there 20 years ago.

“I think students need to be given the information that will allow them to make the judgment that it is important how they share personal information and thoughts and opinions and emotions online and that they should do it in a safe and respectful manner.

“I think they need to know of the risks and consequences when it comes to pornography, when it comes to the sharing of sexual images online – it is about presenting the information in a safe manner to them so that they know what they’re about.”

In a statement, the Rape Crisis Network Ireland said research has shown that teenagers are experiencing high levels of sexual harassment and that sexual harassment and violence is normalised, denied and minimised, particularly for girls.

“The children who will benefit from this comprehensive new curriculum must be given the tools to address their own and others’ desires and demands appropriately against our misogynistic cultural backdrop,” said Cliona Saidlear, executive director of RCNI.

“We are all stakeholders in this process and it is of vital importance to all of us that, as they prepare to enter their adolescence and adulthood, our children are equipped with accurate information on sex and biology, empowered by robust guidance on healthy versus abusive relationships and protected from damaging social and cultural norms around gender and sexuality.”

The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment is publishing a draft curriculum today that will be open for public consultation for three months. 

Members of the public, especially students, parents, and education providers, are invited to submit feedback on the plans.

“If there are other areas that need to be looked at, this is the invitation that has been extended to everyone within the field of education and indeed outside of it to express a view, share their thoughts and their experiences,” Foley said.

The new syllabus will also update how SPHE teaches students about gender in line with efforts to ensure everyone is safe and included in schools.

“The first and key priority in a school is that students are welcomed, that they are included and that they feel safe in the school environment,” the minister said.

“Subjects like SPHE already have a role to play in that respect and it is ensuring and will advocate that all students, whatever their gender, that they have a place, that they have a voice, that they are included, that they are participative in the school environment.

“I think that’s important, I think that that’s the agenda and the sole agenda, that every child is valued and every young person is valued.”