Children as young as five should be given compulsory sex education lessons to prevent schools marginalising the subject in timetables, ministers have been told.
A coalition of charities is calling for sex and relationships education to be placed on the national curriculum for the first time – making it a statutory requirement in all state primary and secondary schools.
In a report published today, the Sex Education Forum claims that compulsory lessons are needed to address a lack of awareness of sexual health issues, consent, respectful relationships and domestic violence.
It quoted figures from Ofsted showing that a third of schools are currently provide “inadequate” teaching in the subject.
Experts also warn that many other schools – particularly faith-based institutions – shun it altogether.
Under current legislation, sex education is a non-statutory subject, meaning schools are free to drop it altogether. The only compulsory element is at secondary level where schools must teach about the biology of sex and reproduction.
The calls threaten to resurrect a row last stoked in 2009 when Labour proposed introducing mandatory classes in personal, social, health and economic education (PSHE) – the vehicle used for delivering sex education.
The plan was eventually dropped just before the General Election.
The Coalition was accused of undermining the subject further by scrapping non-statutory guidance on PSHE, giving individual schools complete freedom over how to teach it.
Today, the Sex Education Forum – a group of organisations based at the National Children’s Bureau – called for a radical overhaul of the subject.
It released the findings of a survey of more than 200 teachers that found six per cent of schools have no policy on sex education and a small handful ban the subject altogether.
Some seven out of 10 teachers said they needed “more training to be able to teach good quality” sex and relationships education (SRE).
The report said: “Statutory status would allow SRE to be treated the same as other subjects – with teachers getting the training they need and enough time being allocated in the timetable for this vital subject to address real life issues including respectful relationships, domestic violence and consent.”
The calls came as the Commons education select committee prepared to launch an inquiry into the teaching of the subject.
Family campaigners have resisted calls to make sex education compulsory in the past, saying it risks exposing young children to adult themes before they are ready.
Norman Wells, from the Family Education Trust, has said that introducing sex education at an early age "runs the risk of breaking down children’s natural sense of reserve".
"Far from being a hindrance, children’s natural inhibitions and sense of modesty in talking about sexual matters are healthy and provide a necessary safeguard against both sexual abuse and casual attitudes towards sexual intimacy later on," he said.
But Jane Lees, chairman of the forum, said: “For too long young people have been telling us about what they wish they had learnt in school about consent and relationships and how better knowledge of their body and sexual health facts could have kept them safer and healthier.
"As the education select committee opens its inquiry, we are calling for all political parties’ commitment to make SRE statutory.”
Daisy Ellis, acting policy director at Terrence Higgins Trust, the HIV and AIDS charity, said: “We have reached a stage where teachers and students agree that the current approach to sex and relationships education is not working.
“Until those in Westminster make a solid commitment to make SRE a statutory part of the curriculum, generations of young people will continue to leave school unprepared and at risk of sexual ill health.”