Maria Miller, U.K. Parliament's chair of Women and Equalities Committee, recently claimed that Brexit was responsible for creating hindrances and obstacles for various important sex education reforms. She believes that the government is very preoccupied with Brexit and the arrangements to make sex education compulsory in schools are being neglected.
The committee previously released a critical report which highlighted appalling occurrences of sexual harassment and violence in schools. As a result, the leading Conservative MP has launched a campaign to make Sex and Relationship Education (SRE) compulsory in all schools. To bring the matter to immediate attention, Miller even called an adjournment debate in the Commons on Monday where the issue will be discussed.
According to The Guardian, Miller has a lot of support for her campaign from political figures and various charities. Apart from them, the Education secretary Justine Greening also completely backs her up. Miller, however, said that despite the overwhelming support for her movement she is afraid that government's interest and involvement with Brexit is going to delay their process.
Speaking critically of this, the chair stated that it was unfair to hold off this issue because of Brexit, as it is an immediate necessity. She argued that every child's life matters and it was absolutely unacceptable to let anything get in the way of their education or them feeling safe. Consequently, she was not impressed by the idea of the authorities being side-tracked by Brexit.
Maria Miller's campaign on Sex and Relationship Education does not come as a complete surprise since a poll held earlier in the UK also indicated that the masses wanted the subject to be compulsory in schools. Miller believes that she must "build momentum" in order to drive the issue forward. With problems like cyber-bullying, sexting and online abuse becoming more and more common, sex education becomes more important than ever, she discussed.
