SPHE to become mandatory subject for Leaving Cert cycle students

SPHE will become a mandatory, non-exam subject for Leaving Cert cycle students from 2024.

Issues surrounding consent, the influence pornography can have on behaviour, and how to recognise an abusive relationship are among the topics that will be taught to students under a draft syllabus that is being published today by the Department of Education.

Public consultation on the senior cycle proposals is under way, with the aim to have a new programme in place in schools by September of 2024.

At present, SPHE is timetabled in fewer than one in five schools, and the new curriculum will be mandatory across the post-primary sector.

The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment said the draft programme has been designed to be “inclusive of all genders, sexualities, ethnicities, religious beliefs, social classes and abilities/disabilities”.

It noted the programme should be designed in a way that fully integrates and reflects LGBTQ+ identities, relationships and families.

The NCAA pointed to “growing evidence of the challenges that young people in Ireland face as they navigate growing up today, coupled with evidence of the important role that school-based health education programmes can play in supporting young people’s social, emotional and physical well-being.”

The programme will be split into three strands, with the first focusing on students’ physical, social, emotional and mental health, the second focusing on learning how to create and maintain respectful, caring and healthy relationships, while the third part will encourage students to develop a range of skills, including understanding their legal rights and responsibilities and how to be an ally for people experiencing discrimination or inequality.

As part of the Relationships and Sexuality strand fifth and sixth-year students will be expected to “discuss sexual activity as an aspect of adult relationships characterised by care, respect, consent, intimacy and mutual pleasure”.

Public consultation on the draft syllabus will run until mid-October.