by Lucy Ashton
Parents would be given a say on what their children are taught about sensitive issues, including sex education, under Scottish Conservative plans.
The party’s manifesto contains a pledge to establish parent panels in every council area to ensure that school lessons on socially-contentious subjects are age-appropriate for their children.
Scottish Conservative education spokesperson Miles Briggs said the “common-sense” policy would reassure parents and ensure controversial policies like the SNP’s pupil sex surveys – which posed intrusive questions of their children – never saw the light of day.
He added that parents were better judges of what was appropriate material for their children to be taught on issues like sex and personal morality than SNP ministers or council education officials.
Miles Briggs, right, said: “These common-sense plans would give parents a say in what their children are taught in areas like sex education.
“Our parent panels would ensure pupils receive age-appropriate information on sensitive issues.
“The sex survey which SNP ministers foisted upon Scottish schoolkids asked intrusive and deeply inappropriate questions that left many pupils and parents feeling uncomfortable.
“Parent panels would guard against damaging initiatives like this being introduced in the first place and curtail the influence of government-funded activists who seek to impose their agendas on issues like gender in our schools.
“The Scottish Conservatives believe that parents are better judges of what’s right for their kids to learn on socially contentious issues than SNP ministers or education officials.
“Scotland’s once-leading education system has been trashed by almost two decades of Nationalist rule, with plummeting standards and rising classroom violence. That’s why voters should back the Scottish Conservatives on their peach ballot to stop an SNP majority.”
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