Orders of the Day — Education

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 21 April 1971.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Miss Janet Fookes Miss Janet Fookes , Merton and Morden 12:00, 21 April 1971

I rise to make my maiden speech, conscious of the fact that I am the last one of the June batch to do so. If I was not aware of it before, the kindly offer of Crossbencher of a wooden spoon has made me aware of it. Whether he faithfully promised or not to send it, it has not yet arrived. I await it. He said it was winging on its way. Perhaps it is on its way, but it has been a long time on the wing. Whether it was a rhetorical flourish on his part and not meant to be taken seriously, I do not know. Possibly it has been delayed in the post, or perhaps he just plain forgot. Anyway, I still await it for use in my more domestic moments.

I turn to more important matters. Usually one has the pleasant task of paying a compliment to one's predecessor in one's constituency. My predecessor, however, still sits in this House for another constituency and he has made it abundantly clear to me that I am to say nothing about him whatever. Since he is the Government Deputy Chief Whip it will be appreciated that I hasten to comply. On the other hand I must pay a tribute to the very great kindness which he showed me both as a candidate and, since, as a Member of the House. He did a great deal to help me get to know my constituency.

I am grateful, too, to my constituency of Merton and Morden for the kindness which it has shown to a newcomer. It is a very hard-working constituency lying in the commuter belt of Greater London, and I am very pleased indeed to represent it. My only sadness is that, because of Boundary Commission changes, it will disappear completely at the next General Election.

I am interested in the educational setup in Merton. I have visited several schools there, and I hope to complete my visits before the end of the year. I have been interested to see how a sound scheme of comprehensive reorganisation is working in practice. Where such sound principles are found, I am in favour of comprehensive education and I make that point now, so that the House knows where I stand.

It is not my purpose this afternoon to deal with comprehensive education but rather to turn to a point made by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Education and Science concerning sex education in schools. I was extremely glad that she made the comments she did, and to hear that she intends to give guidance, although she has no powers in this matter. Many parents are deeply disturbed by the latest film which has been made on the subject, and also by the "Little Red Book". Only yesterday, when I was speaking on a subject which had nothing whatever to do with education, during question time several people asked me what they should do if there were a likelihood of this film being shown in schools. I fear that in the excitement generated by these rather undesirable publications there will be a failure to appreciate the need for good, sensible sex education in schools.

As a teacher and the chairman of an education committee, I have met many parents who, even in this permissive age, feel self-conscious about tackling this subject. What they find difficult they tend to put off to a more convenient day, which never comes. Some parents are not equipped to give this kind of information. They may not have a sufficient command of English, and they may not even know the facts sufficiently well to be able to put them over to a young child. We entrust teachers with the teaching of many other subjects, and I feel that trained people can be of great assistance in sex education.

There is a danger that children who do not receive sex education either at school or from their parents are liable to pick it up in the most undesirable way—what I would describe as "playground sex", the sniggers in the corner, from which the most extraordinary so-called facts emerge which are biologically incorrect and leave the child with a distorted view of the subject. There is also the danger that, if we leave a gap, unscrupulous commercial organisations will try to cash in. I am reminded of the Biblical parable of the man whose soul was cleansed of one devil which left his soul quite clean and empty, but in due course the devil came back with several companions and the man's case was worse than before.

It is incumbent upon us to make sure that education of the kind we should like to see is given. Although decency and delicacy in the middle of the 20th century do not seem to have the highest priority, there are many who would like sex education to be done in a decent and delicate way. The co-operation and approval of the parents is an absolutely essential feature of any attempt to give sex education in school.

It may perhaps be useful to the House if I describe an experiment made by the local education authority of which I was chairman until the General Election. The chief education officer and I received an invitation to view the two films being put out by the B.B.C. for showing to 8-and 9-year-olds in primary schools. We went to see the films, and we had the benefit of being able to question those who had made the films and to hear the comments of the people who had taken part in a pilot scheme in which the B.B.C. had shown the films in schools and could judge the reaction. I was greatly impressed by the way in which the films handled the subject. Much of the unkind publicity which surrounded the films was quite unmerited.

We then returned to our local education authority and called together all the heads of primary schools. I gave them my views on the films, and they showed sufficient interest to want to see them for themselves. We arranged a meeting where the films could be shown, and again a representative of the B.B.C. came and answered questions. It was made clear that the local education authority would back to the hilt those heads who wished to go further, on the one condition that they had the co-operation and approval of the parents. Some heads called the parents together and showed them the films, and the parents talked it over. In certain schools the films have been shown and have been a great success. Many parents have said that they now feel they can talk to their children more easily because they have something to go on and the ice has been broken.

One meeting was memorable because, at the beginning of the meeting, before anything had been done or said, the head took a count of those parents who were against sex education. More than 50 per cent. were against sex education in primary schools. By the time the meeting was over about 88 per cent. were strongly in favour. This shows the value of a public relations exercise when it is carefully and thoroughly carried out.

When the Secretary of State is considering giving guidance, I. hope she will think that this scheme could be more widely adopted. It also has the merit of ensuring that films about which we are doubtful would never have a chance of being shown in schools. For these reasons I commend the scheme to the Secretary of State.