Catholic schools should reflect Catholic moral teaching in sex education, the Catholic Church has stated. Its guidelines on sex education state that Catholic schools should be "specific in excluding approaches which are inconsistent with the very foundations of Catholic moral thought."
The guidelines, Developing a Policy for Relationships and Sexuality Education in Catholic Schools, were prepared by the Bishops' Commission for Catechetics, and have been sent to primary schools.
The Minister for Education has welcomed their publication.
The document sets out four basic principles which Catholic schools should follow in drawing up their own sex education policies:
The school should seek to communicate the Christian vision of human life and human relationships;
The school must recognise that in this area its role is subsidiary to that of the parents;
The school should reflect Catholic moral teaching on sexual matters;
The dignity, privacy and modesty of each child must always be respected.
The Minister, Mr al Martin, said he was pleased that the guidelines "reflect the approach which has been taken by the Department of Education, in consultation with the education partners, during the preparation and introduction of Relationships and Sexuality Education".
The INTO has said it has no difficulty with the guidelines. The detail of the guidelines puts a strong emphasis on the role of parents.
No programme should be introduced in a school until the parents have been consulted and informed about what the school is proposing, they state.
Information about human reproduction should not be given to children by the school until it has established that it has already been communicated to the child at home.
"Parents who are properly fulfilling their responsibility with regard to the sexual education of their child should not find that the child has anticipated material which they have planned to communicate at a later date."
They add, however, that "some parents may decide that they would prefer to delegate, in whole or in part, the responsibility for dealing with these issues to the child's teachers."
The document is unequivocal about the obligation on Catholic schools to reflect Catholic moral teaching.
"Teachers will not attempt to build respect for the view of others on the false and fragile base of thinking that it does not much matter what one's view is, so long as it is sincere," it states.
It declares later that "what is right and wrong is not a mere matter of opinion".