Sex education to teach students about ‘respect and consent’ in wake of rape culture revelation

After Chanel Contos helped expose rape culture in Australian schools, new sex education changes are coming for all students.

Sex education will focus more on respect and consent after federal Education Minister Alan Tudge praised traumatised schoolgirls for exposing a rape culture in some schools.

The new Minister also criticised teacher training, and called for more engineers and accountants to retrain as maths and science teachers.

Mr Tudge hailed the “bravery and strength” of hundreds of young women who have detailed allegations of rape, sexual assault and harassment, in an online campaign by young Sydney woman Chanel Contos.

“Their voices have shone a light on an important issue and given it the attention that it deserves,” Mr Tudge said in a speech to the Menzies Research Centre yesterday.

“They have alerted us to situations that are completely unacceptable.

“We must all redouble our efforts to ensure that girls and young women are safe and respected in schools.”

Former Kambala student Chanel Contos who started an anonymous online petition to improve sex and consent education in schools across Australia. Picture: @chanelc/Instagram

Mr Tudge said the federal Education Department would roll out new teaching

materials on consent and respectful relationships, through the Respect Matters program, in coming weeks.

In his first major speech outlining his education reform agenda, Mr Tudge said Australia should rank among the top countries for literacy and numeracy within a decade.

He said Australia’s 15-year-old high school students had fallen behind in the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) over the past 20 years.

He said Australia’s performance in reading had fallen by the equivalent of nine months of schooling, maths by 14 months and science by 11 months of schooling.

“As our student results have fallen, we have dropped behind more and more countries,’’ he said.

Education Minister Alan Tudge has announced sex education will be beefed up to teach students about “respect and consent”. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Sarah Matray

“We should set ourselves a new goal of being back amongst the world’s best within a decade.

“If this was our economy, the decline would be a national topic of conversation.’’

Mr Tudge said teachers were even more important than parents for some children, and called for better teacher training and incentives for other professionals to switch careers.

“We are still not consistently attracting the best students into teaching,’’ he said.

“We need to find additional pathways to attract outstanding students to teaching, including talented mid-career professionals.

“I would love to see more engineers and accountants using their mathematical expertise to help us address our critical shortage of maths teachers.’’

Mr Tudge said that 20 years ago, someone with a university degree could retrain as a teacher with a one-year diploma.

“Now it takes a minimum of a two year Masters,’’ he said.

“It would be a rare mid-career person who could afford to take two years off work.

“Shorter pathways are required.’’

Mr Tudge said a review of the Australian curriculum this would focus on reading, maths and civics and citizenship.

He said too many primary school students are heading into high school without “fundamental reading skills’’.

He backed the continuation of NAPLAN (National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy) tests, which were postponed last year during the COVID-19 lockdowns.

The Australian Education Union yesterday demanded the federal government pour more money into public schools.

Sex education will be beefed up to teach students about “respect and consent” after federal Education Minister Alan Tudge today praised schoolgirls for exposing a traumatic rape culture in schools.

Originally published as Sex education to teach students about ‘respect and consent’ in wake of rape culture revelation