By Rebecca John

Should it even be legal?

What gets your blood boiling? We all have a moment where we see a news headline which makes us so angry that we see red. Why does the government allow such things to happen? Can such a law even exist? Let it out and tell us about the legal issues which make you want to scream and shout.

 

A ticking time bomb: sexual health

Am I the only person who was surprised to turn up at university to find that some of my new friends had never experienced the cringe-worthy but necessary ordeal that was secondary school sex education? I’d always assumed schools were under a legal obligation to provide students with practical advice and information on such vital topics, but it came to my attention (and to my dismay) that this is not the case.

In fact, sex education is only currently mandatory in council-run schools; accounting for roughly one third of pupils nationally. Although some liberal parents may step in to educate where schools are failing to, the government remains responsible for underequipping over 60% of Britain’s teenagers for the challenges they will face transitioning into 21st century adulthood. It’s a sexual health crisis waiting to happen, and has been referred to by experts as a ‘ticking sexual health time bomb’.

Admittedly, earlier this year, newly announced government plans set to put sex education on the national curriculum. But let’s not breathe a sigh of relief just yet. The new ‘Sex and Relationships Education’ scheme is not set to be rolled out for another two years and the content schools are proposed to cover is limited. It seems as though an archaic approach to sex education has prevailed and important topics such as consent, sexting, pornography and LGBT rights just didn’t make the cut.

We are being let down by the government’s inability to ensure that all pupils are correctly prepared for life outside of the classroom, and it’s time that bigger steps are taken to tackle the many dangers faced by young people today. Sex education provides a unique opportunity to mould behaviours and opinions surrounding the most intimate of social issues and the non-utilisation of this is an outrage.