Assembly debate on parental right to opt children out of Relationship and Sex Education (RSE) curriculum, follows motion by Alliance Party

The DUP, TUV and UUP spoke against the motion while the SDLP and Sinn Fein argued in favour.

The Alliance motion was passed 49 votes to 33 in a purely indicative vote on Monday.

After the vote Pro-life group Precious Life condemned the motion, saying that parents are "the first educators of their children, not the Government".

"During the Assembly debate on the motion, the Alliance Party stated they were opposed to allowing parents to 'opt out' their children from sex education. The Party said children wanting sex education 'must always be the priority' over the rights of parents," the group said.

The group noted that Secretary of State Chris Heaton Harris has now imposed compulsory sex education focussing on how to access abortion and contraction for secondary schools across NI.

He has directed that parents must have the right to opt their children out of this - but not the wider RSE curriculum.

Director of Precious Life Bernadette Smyth said: "Parents cannot trust any RSE (Relationship and Sex Education) teaching programme for their children when it comes from a Government that says killing babies is a ‘legal right’. It is the fundamental right of parents to be the first educators of their children, not the Government."

In a statement, motion proposer Alliance South Belfast MLA Kate Nicholl said: “A study by the Belfast Youth Forum showed that 73% of young people only received RSE ‘once or twice’, or ‘rarely’, and 60% of young people felt that that the information they received was either ‘not very useful’ or ‘not useful at all.’"

During the debate, Ms Nichol opposed a parental opt-out from such classes.

She said: "The opt-out provides for the potential dilution of children's rights by limiting their access to age-appropriate information about healthy relationships and sexuality, and we are opposed to such a measure on that basis. The rights of the child must always be the priority, and our children and young people want access to comprehensive RSE."

TUV leader Jim Allister accused the MLA of "trying to defy" the European Convention on Human Rights on parental right, which he said, states: "the State shall respect the right of parents to ensure such education and teaching in conformity with their own religious and philosophical convictions."

But Ms Nicholl countered that the 2023 statement of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child sets out that parental rights are "not absolute but, rather, delimited by children's status as rights holders".

She noted that sometimes children are learning about what a healthy and safe relationship looks like from parents who are "in fact, abusers".

UUP MLA Tom Elliott said that RSE is "healthy if it is age-appropriate and taught on the right basis, using the right terms" but added that "some of it is not age-appropriate - that is what concerns me”.

However Education Minister Paul Givan told the assembly that his department requires schools to consult both parents and young people on the development and review of their RSE policy.

He said this “cannot sit beside” a “standardised” approach to RSE.

"That is the right approach," he added.