Muslim teachers and parents from across the West Midlands gathered to discuss their concerns on the compulsory introduction of Relationship and Sex Education (RSE) into all schools across England from 1st September 2020.
The event which was held in Birmingham on Sunday 30th December, was arranged by Shaykh Mohammad Aslam and attracting a wide cross section of the Muslim community.
The talk delivered by Dr. Kate Godfrey-Fausset focussed on explaining what RSE is, why we should be concerned, as well as exploring ways in which leaders and teachers could begin to tackle this pressing issue. Time also allowed for questions to be asked and for ideas and thoughts to be shared, creating a sense of unity and energy about how people could go home and implement solutions into their local communities.
The Muslim community is showing growing concern about how sex education in schools is being taught and a group called Stop RSE was formed to address these issues. Dr. Kate Godfrey-Fausset, who setup this group and who is a psychologist by profession, has been organising workshops and seminars in various centres around the UK to raise awareness about RSE in schools.
Recently a petition was setup, which received over 70,000 signatures within weeks, calling on the UK government to afford rights to parents to opt their children out of RSE classes.