Victorian schoolboys to be taught how to respect females

Teenage boys at Victorian state schools will be taught about consensual sex and respectful relationships with females in a new program aimed at curbing toxic masculinity.

Teenage boys at state schools will be taught about consensual sex and how to ­express their emotions in a bid to combat toxic masculinity.

Male students from 12 to 16 will undergo compulsory daylong workshops to learn how to be respectful in relationships with girls and to talk about their mental health.

The “healthy masculinity” initiative, which specifically educates boys, is split into two parts under the state government’s $82m Respectful Relationships school program ­designed to promote gender equality and respect.

Educators from mental health charity The Man Cave divide their years 7 to 10 cohorts into groups to talk about how consent is a nuanced concept not always communicated with a “yes” or “no”, and how to ensure sexual encounters are consensual.

The charity also teaches boys to look after their mental health, questioning often damaging ideas of what it means to be masculine, such as repressing emotions and not showing vulnerability or affection.

Meanwhile, Richmond-based charity Jesuit Social Services will also teach its respect and equality programs at government schools.

Education Minister James Merlino said the trial scheme would help show where the curriculum on masculinity could be improved.

Education Minister James Merlino says the trial scheme would help show where curriculum on masculinity could be improved. Picture: David Crosling

“These new pilot programs are another opportunity to support our schools to produce respectful, compassionate young adults, and to learn what we can do better in regards to respect and healthy masculinity in our education system,” he said.

One hundred state schools will initially participate in the program, with the aim it may expand to all schools.

Meanwhile, 378 non-government schools have signed up for boys to be taught about healthy masculinity.

Man Cave chief executive Hunter Johnson said schools needed to focus on boys’ behaviour so they could develop healthy ideas of what it meant to be masculine.

“The models that our ­fathers or grandfathers lived by, we’re starting to see that they are no longer serving us,” he said.

“We need to develop a little bit more range in these young men’s identities so that they can be stoic and strong and be a protector, but they also have the ability to be vulnerable, honest and nurturing.”

Surf Coast Secondary College principal Erin Wright said having year 9 and 10 boys learn healthy communication was “one of the most important” skills they could develop.

“We’ve really seen our young men open up to each other,” she said.

But Mr Johnson said the education would take time.

“There’s so much involved in consent, and it’s not something that’s necessarily going to be solved in one lesson plan,” he said. Consent education became mandatory in Victorian schools in term two last year.