Consultation Starts On New Draft Sexuality Education Framework

Monday, 14 April 2025, 3:07 pm
Article: RNZ

Russell Palmer, Political Reporter

The government has started consulting on draft new relationships and sexuality education (RSE) guidelines for schools.

Winston Peters called the previous non-compulsory guidelines, which were removed, "woke" and "out of touch".

The Education Minister, National's Erica Stanford, said New Zealand First had no influence over the new framework and the government is seeking feedback from anyone who wants to provide it.

They offered guidance for teaching different age groups about consensual relationships, online bullying, sexualities, gender identities, and pornography, but were scrapped last June under the National and New Zealand First coalition deal.

The coalition agreement required the government to "refocus the curriculum on academic achievement and not ideology, including the removal and replacement of the gender, sexuality, and relationship-based education guidelines".

The new draft framework - which will feed into the wider compulsory curriculum - shows few mentions of gender or gender identities, but Stanford said New Zealand First had no influence over it.

"The writing group that put this together were an expert writing group in the ministry. So what they have put to us has not been influenced by New Zealand First or by myself," she said.

"This is an independent group that sits within the ministry that have put this out for consultation, and now we will hear back from the sector about whether or not there are things that are missing, things that should be put back in, things that should be taken out, things that should be moved around. That's exactly what this [consultation] is for.

"There was no direction given to the writing group on what to teach, when. It is up to them. They are experts in the ministry that have written this document."

The consultation documents said they focused on "making sure the content is age-appropriate, evidence-informed, and clear about what is covered in RSE at each age, from Year 0 through to Year 13".

It said the guidelines were developed by curriculum subject matter experts and quality assured by both internal and external experts.

"When engaging with the content of this framework, teachers and leaders should consider the age appropriateness for each phase of learning, whether the content is comprehensive and if you feel anything should be removed or added."

Stanford told RNZ the framework would provide a rich, year-by-year curriculum for health and physical education which would include sections on relationships and sexuality.

She said it would set out what would be taught at which age, giving parents more clarity over what was being taught.

"This framework is just in order for us to get feedback from parents, from teachers, from schools and from sector groups to make sure that what we think we should teach, and when, is in the right place."

She said it would ensure children were being taught about being kind and respectful, and ensure teaching about consent at appropriate ages.

The government was seeking feedback from all groups, she said.

"I welcome all consultation. That's the point of this. I'm not saying to any group 'we will not listen to you', we're out for consultation from all groups."

The guidelines had been updated in 2020 after the Education Review Office (ERO) in 2018 found many schools had teaching gaps on topics, particularly consent, digital technologies and relationships.

"We're going out for consultation to say, is this the right time to be talking about these differences. Is it the right time to be talking about consent? Is it the right time to be naming body parts when you're five years old? Is it okay that we're talking more to boys in upper secondary school about consent? ... Is it okay to start talking about online safety in year five? That's what we're out to do," Stanford said.

The guidelines had been updated in 2020 after the Education Review Office (ERO) in 2018 found many schools had teaching gaps on topics, particularly consent, digital technologies and relationships.

After the guidelines were removed, some schools were reportedly choosing not to teach RSE material.

Education Minister Erica Stanford advised schools to continue using the 2007 curriculum in the meantime.

Another ERO report last year found 91 percent of students and 87 percent of parents supported RSE being taught and noted there was a lot of flexibility for schools around exactly what was taught and how.

Only one third of school leavers reported being taught about gender identity or gender stereotypes.

Some 53 percent of parents said they wanted RSE to stay the same, compared to 34 percent who wanted a change and 13 percent who did not want it taught at all.

Pacific parents, parents of primary aged students, and parents of faith were less likely to support it being taught.

The December report warned that requiring schools to consult on the content of the lessons exposed schools to misinformation, bigotry and threats.

Stanford said the government would make further decisions at a later stage about whether schools would continue to be required to consult with communities about what was being taught.

"They find themselves in the middle of what can be quite difficult to manage discussions with the community, where you've got people who think different things, you've got the religious groups on one side and then other groups on the other, and so schools find themselves caught in the middle, and it's a really unfair place to be. And I have a huge amount of sympathy for principals who have to navigate this," she said.

"The more clarity that I can provide from the centre that says 'this is what we're teaching and when, and here is a detailed description of the words that we will use and the types of topics that will be discussed', that eases some of the pressure on schools when they having to go out and talk to their communities."

She said the government would also do further work on providing guidelines around the teaching environments and providing further professional development for teachers, as had been done with the Maths and English curriculums.

"You'll notice in Maths and in English - fully resourced about professional learning and development, as well as tactile resources," she said.

"So of course, we've already shown that when we put out a curriculum area, we fully resource it with professional learning and development about the how - so we've given you the 'what', this is the 'how' ... we've already shown that that's how we operate in this government, and we will do the same for every curricular area that we're writing."

Stanford after that report, said the government wanted to give certainty, and the first full RSE curriculum refresh in 20 years would reflect the changes in society in that time.

Consultation on the new framework is open until 9 May, with feedback to be added into the "health and physical education learning area" for further consultation in term four.

It will be compulsory as part of the curriculum from 2027.

© Scoop Media

RNZ

New Zealand's public broadcaster, providing comprehensive NZ news and current affairs, specialist audio features and documentaries.

Radio New Zealand is a Crown entity established under the Radio New Zealand Act 1995. Radio New Zealand News are vital elements in our programming, providing impartial news and information to New Zealanders every day. Radio New Zealand (RNZ) provides listeners with exciting and independent radio programmes in accordance with the Radio New Zealand Charter.

Contact RNZ

• Website - www.radionz.co.nz
• Twitter - @rnz_news
• Facebook
• Link - Contact RNZ