Curriculum Proposals: Marriage (Hansard, 8 July 1999)

§ The Minister of State, Department for Education and Employment (Baroness Blackstone)
My Lords, marriage will not be neglected. The curriculum proposals are based on the report of the Personal, Social and Health Education Advisory Group, Preparing Young People for 1018 Adult Life. This states clearly the importance of helping pupils to understand the value of family life and the institutions that support it, including marriage. We accepted the report in full. The proposals are currently out for consultation. My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Education and Employment has already made clear that the final curriculum framework will include an explicit reference to the importance of marriage. This is in response to the representations already received.

§ Lord Northbourne
My Lords, I am most grateful to the noble Baroness for that helpful and encouraging Answer. Does she agree that there is a substantial body of research which suggests that children who grow up in happy, stable, two-parent families have, on average, a better chance of achieving their potential, and that marriage with all its faults is probably the best way the human race has so far discovered of supporting and sustaining that kind of long-term relationship? Therefore, it is extremely important that children should have an opportunity to know the facts about partnerships and marriage and to discuss their implications while they are still at school.

§ Baroness Blackstone
My Lords, it is important that we should do everything we can to make sure that children grow up in happy and stable circumstances, and marriage is often the background in which that kind of happiness and stability can be created. At the same time, it is important that we are sensitive to the fact that there are large numbers of children in our schools who do not have that good fortune. It would be sad if anything that we did in schools made those children feel even more inadequate. This is an area where we want teachers to be sensitive. Teachers are receiving training to achieve just that.

§ The Earl of Lauderdale
My Lords, does teaching the importance of marriage include reference to its durability?

§ Baroness Blackstone
My Lords, of course.

§ Lord Phillips of Sudbury
My Lords, is it not also true that one of the four themes proposed for personal, social and health education is the, development of satisfying and effective relationships recognising and respecting difference"? I believe that I have quoted that extract correctly. Would that not be an extraordinarily useful general acquisition for all our young people?

§ Baroness Blackstone
My Lords, that is a helpful contribution. It is, of course, the case that many children come from backgrounds and homes where traditional family patterns do not exist. We need to respect that. We also need to persuade children and young people that they have to be tolerant, that there are many different models, and that different models work for different people. That is something that should be taught in our schools.

Baroness Young
My Lords, is not the noble Baroness concerned that the Government's White Paper on the family makes clear that marriage is the best way for 1019 couples to live—I may not have the terminology exact, but that is certainly its intent—but the document from the noble Baroness's department on values does not mention marriage and seems to many of us to be putting in front of children unsafe and unreliable forms of living?

§ Baroness Blackstone
My Lords, I am not sure whether the noble Baroness heard my first Answer, but I thought that I had made it clear that Preparing Young People for Adult Life makes it absolutely clear that a stable family background is important and that the report refers to marriage. The foreword by the Secretary of State does so. The other document which considers revisions to the national curriculum is out for consultation. My right honourable friend the Secretary of State has already made it clear that we shall respond to the representations that have been made about marriage.

§ The Lord Bishop of Ely
My Lords, is the noble Baroness aware that her reply gave great pleasure to these Benches? Is she also aware that we believe that it is possible to say all the positive things which have been said in government publications without implying any of the negatives which have sometimes been thought to follow from those positives? Is she aware that we would give the sensitive treatment of these issues our full support?

§ Baroness Blackstone
My Lords, I am enormously grateful to the right reverend Prelate for his welcome of the Government's position on this matter and for his support, and that of his Benches, for a sensitive approach to what is a sensitive issue.

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, is it true that the Government have plans to lift the clause in the Act which bars teachers in schools from proselytising homosexual relationships as a preferred way of life?

§ Baroness Blackstone
My Lords, I do not think the noble Baroness has the matter quite right. Section 28 does not relate to teachers in schools; it is about local education authorities.

§ Baroness Strange
My Lords, does the Minister agree that, The joys of marriage are the heaven on earth, Life's paradise, the great princess, the soul's quiet, Sinews of concord, earthly immortality"?

§ Baroness Blackstone
My Lords, I am afraid that I am not able to match the noble Baroness in replying to that!

§ Lord Campbell of Alloway
My Lords, is it within the remit—it may be—of the Department for Education and Employment to give definitive advice about marriage?

§ Baroness Blackstone
My Lords, the Department for Education and Employment has responsibility for the school curriculum, including questions of personal, social and health matters that affect all young people. 1020 I think it is right that the department. through listening to advice from experts in this area, should then provide a framework which schools can use.