- Pupils aged seven would be given explicit information
on sex, including how to use contraception and to spot the symptoms of
syphilis, under a scheme approved by the conference yesterday.
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- A broad programme of sex education, including lessons
about people who have sex changes, would be taught to all children aged
seven to 11 in an attempt to bring down the rate of teenage pregnancies
and prevent sexually transmitted diseases.
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- The curriculum would include information on gay and bisexual
relationships and "non-judgemental" information on contraception,
including the morning-after pill and condoms.
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- "Sex education should begin before the time at which
a young person could be expected to start puberty," the new policy
says.
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- An overwhelming number of delegates voted last night
to introduce compulsory sex classes, despite efforts by Phil Willis, the
party's education spokesman, to persuade delegates to make them voluntary
and up to the discretion of parents.
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- He said that refusing to give parents a choice over whether
their children took the course was "fundamentally illiberal",
and warned that "critics would portray it as a loony policy.
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- "The implication is that children as young as seven
will be taught elements of sex education," he said. The Liberal Democrat
policy would lower the age of sexual education classes from 11 to seven
and make them compulsory. At the moment parents can decide whether their
children participate in sexual eduction at school.
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- Miranda Piercey, a delegate from Shepway, backed compulsory
sex education by trained teachers. She said that at her school the children
"practised putting condoms on to bananas, timing each other to see
who was the fastest."
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- Under the plans, parents even those with religious objections
to their children taking sex education classes could not exclude them.
Hugh Annand, a Christian, said he wanted children to learn about sex in
the classroom and "not behind the bike sheds".
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- The party also approved a policy to ban parents from
smacking their children. It said: "Children, as the weakest and most
vulnerable in our society, have the right to the same protection under
the law on assault as any adult."
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- © 2003 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd
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- http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=446766
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