HC Deb 17 February 1987 vol 110 cc751-3
1. Mr. Hirst

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what guidance his Department has given to education authorities about educating young people on the dangers of AIDS.

The Minister of State, Department of Education and Science (Mrs. Angela Rumbold)

The booklet "Children at School and Problems Related to AIDS", issued in June last year, made it clear that schools have a responsibility to provide pupils with information about AIDS and its transmission. My right hon. Friend will be issuing shortly, to all local education authorities, to teachers in schools and further education institutions and to the youth service, detailed factual information about AIDS to enable young people to be fully educated on the subject and to have their questions authoritatively answered.

Mr. Hirst

I am grateful for my hon. Friend's reply. Will she assure me that such guidance as is given in schools will be given in a sensitive way that reinforces the moral guidance that children should receive in the home? Does she also agree that it is objectionable that some Labour-controlled local authorities are busy promoting gay lessons, the very sort of conduct that is leading to the AIDS cases in Britain?

Mrs. Rumbold

My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has already made it clear that there can be absolutely no justification for any sort of teaching that advocates homosexual behaviour or in any sense encourages homosexual experimentation by pupils. He is having further inquiries made most urgently of those local educational authorities which have been reported as promoting such teaching to establish the facts and to determine whether there is a case for central Government intervention. On the first part of my hon. Friend's question, of course it is the Department's clear intention to ensure that information about AIDS is given as sensitively as possible and within the context of proper family life.

Mr. Strang

Does the Minister accept that it is dangerously misleading to promote the idea that AIDS is a disease of homosexuals? I commend to her the excellent document produced by the Scottish Office as a guidance for educational establishments in Scotland. Does she recognise that it is important to produce such a document and to ensure that real information is imparted to children in the schools, not least because of some of the misinformation that is still appearing in the popular press, such as the article that appeared in a popular Scottish Sunday newspaper this weekend, which stated that AIDS could not be spread through normal heterosexual intercourse?

Mrs. Rumbold

Of course, the hon. Gentleman is quite right. The disease is promulgated not merely by homosexuals. It has now become a heterosexual disease. Therefore, it is important that the correct information about this disastrous disease is given to children and parents in a way that is clearly understood and so that there is no misapprehension about the manner in which the disease can be conveyed. It is not conveyed solely through sexual behaviour. It can be conveyed through other methods.

Mr. Key

Will my hon. Friend give guidance to teachers who, under the Education (No. 2) Act 1986, find themselves in conflict with school governors, who now have the right to say whether sex education should be taught in their schools? Under previous arrangements there would have been no problem, but now there may well be a problem, especially in Roman Catholic schools.

Mrs. Rumbold

I understand the problem to which my hon. Friend refers. It is true that, according to the new regulations under the 1986 Act, governing bodies will be able to dictate what is taught in terms of sex education to children in those schools. I reiterate, however, that we regard it as extremely important that all schools have teachers who will give clear instruction about the dangers of AIDS. This is slightly beyond the remit of simple sex education; it is more to do with health education, since it covers such matters as drug abuse.

Mr. Radice

I welcome the Minister's statement. Following the question of the hon. Member for Salisbury (Mr. Key), will the hon. Lady tell the House how the Secretary of State will ensure that in those schools that exercise their new right under the 1986 Act to ban sex education pupils will be made aware of the dangers of AIDS?

Mrs. Rumbold

It is true that the governing bodies have the final say on sex education. They will be guided by the head teachers. The matter of AIDS goes slightly wider than sex education as a whole. It is important that all instruction appertaining to AIDS is taught within the context of a proper social structure and the proper social apparatus of married family life.