“It is time” for sex education to be “effective”, says the new Secretary of State for Gender Equality

“It is time to move from lamentation to action.” The new Secretary of State for Gender Equality, Salima Saa, has expressed the wish to make “effective” education on emotional, relational and sexual life in schools, Thursday September 26, during a press conference by the Family Planning Association in Paris. “The 2001 law”which makes this teaching compulsory, “lays interesting foundations, but it is still not implemented”deplores the one who was appointed on Saturday. “It’s time.”

“We will have to find new ideas and make sure that [la loi] be truly applied, I mean by that (…) opening up the subject of the culture of consent and having a real openness on the subjects of sexual health and education in emotional life”she added.

Since 2001, primary, secondary and high school students must benefit from at least three annual sex education sessions, including awareness of sexist and sexual violence.

In practice, the account is not there, according to feminist associations, who are regularly alarmed to see these themes being “abandoned by public authorities”not without consequences according to them. They highlight the increase in sexual violence and the deterioration of young people’s knowledge about AIDS, sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and even methods of contraception.

A draft program was published in March by the Higher Council of Programs, placed under the Ministry of Education, with the initial objective of implementation at the start of the 2024 school year. However, the final texts have not yet been presented.