Erica Stanford: Education Minister on the standardisation of sex education in schools

The Education Minister wants to be the one taking the heat over sex education, not schools. 

The new draft curriculum is out for the first round of public consultation before it's written up later this year. 

It proposes children from Year Four learning about consent and gender stereotypes, while high schoolers learn about menstrual cycles and STIs. 

Erica Stanford told Mike Hosking currently, it's up to principals to go out to their community and specify what's taught. 

She says ERO reports found that to be very divisive, and sometimes schools and principles faced a lot of aggression from their communities over the content they taught. 

LISTEN ABOVE 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Wealling seven past seven, So the government wants a word

(00:01):
with you on the new sex sid guidelines for schools.
The previous framework with scrapped words like woken, out of touch,
we're being used. An independent group has put together a
new proposal and the Education Minister, Erica Stanford's back with
us a very good morning to you. Good morning make
Do you like what they're saying or not?

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Look, I do like what they're saying. I think though
there is probably room for improvement, which is why we
have now sent it out into the world and we've
said to parents and to educators, what do you think
should be taught and when? What is age appropriate? Is
there anything missing? Is there anything that we should add
in or take out? Let us know. This is the
time for feedback. It's just a draft framework. Once we

(00:38):
have public feedback, we will go and write the year
by year knowledge rich curriculum that will let parents know
exactly what is being taught every year to give them
choice about what they do for their children and the
best interests of their.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
Family over what time frame you doing this.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
We'll be writing the curriculum this year and it'll be
out for public consultation later in the year.

Speaker 1 (00:58):
So this is genuine consultation as opposed to consultation.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
Now, this is genuine consultation. We don't have all the answers.
Nobody does. But the one thing I would say is that,
as you know very well, that there are many different
opinions on this and it's very split, which is why
I'm doing this. Rather than asking schools to do it.
What we've had in the past is a very loose,
vague curriculum that leads it up to schools who have
to go out every two years by law and consult

(01:23):
with their communities about what to teach and when. And
can you imagine putting a school in that position? Even
Ero reports that it was very divisive and the principles
found it really uncomfortable. In fact, sometimes there was a
lot of aggression from communities.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
But what was being taught well side does take any
of the angst out of it?

Speaker 2 (01:40):
Well, I think there will still be anks, of course,
but direct that angst at me, do not direct it
at your schools. I'd rather that I take the heat
on this than they have to do that. So that's
why we want to have this year by year curriculum
that tells parents exactly what will be taught, the words
that will be used, so they can make an informed
choice about what to do for their child. But more importantly,

(02:00):
it gives us consistency. At the moment we know that
there are huge gaps in young people's learning when it
comes to our relationship and sexuality education. This will now
be consistent. It will give teachers in schools clarity, and
there will be choice for parents whether or not they
have the conversations with their children.

Speaker 1 (02:17):
And I to say, where does a parents fit into
this at any point?

Speaker 2 (02:22):
Well, I think there's a well accepted narrative in this
country that it is the parent's responsibility, but the schools
will step in as the sort of the you know,
if you haven't been told this by this point, we
will teach it. But what we do have to make
sure that we do is say to parents, this is
exactly what's being taught. So if you want to have

(02:42):
a conversation in advance with your child and let the
school do some or if you'd like to pull them
out and do it yourself, or if you would like
to let the school do it, that is your choice.
And so I think that the group the ministry put
inside the ministry have done a good job. They have
put puberty. I heard earlier that puberty was left to
high school. It's not. It starts. It's year five, a
very early discussions and then at year six we talk

(03:05):
about it more because young girls are going through puberty
much earlier these days. And we are talking about consent
and it will be compulsory finally, and I have to
do a shout out to the girls of Wellington Girls
College who have been advocating for this four years and
we will introduce it very early, talking about can someone
borrow my bike? Is it okay to hold my hand?

(03:26):
And then introduce it later in terms of sex education
at high school.

Speaker 1 (03:31):
Okay, while I've got you other hat. The golden visa
things seems to smash it and it's yours, isn't it.
You change the rules, Well, yes I did.

Speaker 2 (03:40):
But I've been talking about this forever ever since the
previous government made the changes. It was obvious that it was,
you know, shooting the golden ghosts and replacing it with
a lame dark as I like to say. We've had
hardly any applications in the last two or three years.
I think these changes came at the right time, there
is an unease in the world, as you know. In mind,

(04:00):
we made the visa more flexible, more attractive. We've got
different categories for different risk appetites, and it is going
gangbusters with already bulletsed. I think that the number of
applications we've had in the last three years so or
we soon well, and a lot of that is coming
out of America.

Speaker 1 (04:18):
Exactly. All right, go well, appreciate it very much. Erica Stamford,
Education and Immigration Minister, eleven minutes past seven. For more
from the Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to news talks
that'd be from six am weekdays, or follow the podcast
on iHeartRadio.