A review of Ireland’s sex education programme found that it did not reflect the lives of today’s pupils.
The Junior Cert SPHE curriculum has been updated after over 25 years.
Junior Cert students will learn about consent, gender identity, and emotional well-being in an updated sex education curriculum.
The new syllabus will be introduced in schools in September.
According to The Irish Times, the new programme will teach pupils that “sexual orientation and gender identity are experienced and expressed in diverse ways”.
Pupils will also learn about the importance of consent in relationships.
They will also learn about “social norms in relation to sexual expression”.
The new SPHE course will also discuss the “influence of pornography on a young person’s understanding, expectations, and social norms in relation to sexual expression”.
A review of Ireland’s sex education programme found that it did not reflect the lives of today’s pupils.
The new programme includes 100 hours of updated content for pupils aged 12-15.
Plans to update the programme were hit with backlash, but schools will be expected to follow the new curriculum regardless of their ethos.
The programme was updated following a major review in 2018.
The new SPHE programme will be rolled out next September.
