Ed Balls is facing legal challenges from faith groups and individuals over his announcement of mandatory sex education lessons for pupils before they reach the age of consent.
Religious groups reacted with anger to the move by the Schools Secretary, which will make it compulsory for all pupils aged 15 will learn about relationships, sex and drugs over the course of a year. The age of consent in the UK is 16. The Muslim Council of Britain vowed to mount a challenge to the new laws that it says contravene the right for children to be taught according to their parents’ tradition.
Shahid Akmal, chairman of the Muslim Council of Britain’s education committee, said parents would be forced to break the law because of their beliefs. “It will cause difficulty,” he said. “I cannot condone people breaking the law, but it will be an individual decision and some parents will feel that it’s the only option open to them.”
This is a true conflict between a society that wants to protect itself from harm and the individual sub-societies that want to protect their own values.
There can be no denying that irresponsible use of sex and drugs is harmful to society as a whole. Our problem is that we cannot trust our society–as embodied in our governments–to attempt to protect itself.