Today, the National Women’s Council brings together key stakeholders, this includes representatives of parents and students and experts from the curriculum redevelopment and violence against women fields.
The discussion will explore the implementation for the Junior Cycle SPHE curriculum and the ongoing redevelopment for the Senior Cycle.
Today, the National Women’s Council brings together key stakeholders, including representatives of parents and students, and experts from the curriculum redevelopment and violence against women fields.
The discussion will explore the implementation of the Junior Cycle SPHE curriculum and the ongoing redevelopment for the Senior Cycle.
Violence against women is reportedly at epidemic levels in Ireland and prevention is key to eliminating it, that’s according to the National Women’s Council.
The aim of the meeting is to discuss the education of young people about the societal norms that underpin violence against women.
NWC recommends that relationships and sexuality education be made mandatory at second level and be integrated across all relevant subjects such as biology and physical education.
Provided standardised training to teachers is particularly important to facilitate this and to empower them to feel comfortable delivering the curriculum.
This training should equip teachers to deal with the inevitability of teaching students who have direct personal experiences of harm from gender-based violence, discrimination or abuse.
Opportunities to promote RSE both within and outside of the classroom should also be explored, so that parents and wider school staff feel prepared to effectively engage with the content that teachers and students are engaging with in the classroom.
