A new draft curriculum for Social Personal and Health Education, which includes sex education, for Senior Cycle students in secondary schools “provides vital space” for Catholic schools to teach the curriculum according to their ethos, a Catholic body has said.

The Catholic Education Partnership (CEP) welcomed the draft overall saying it will allow Catholic schools to present Church teaching “with confidence” and “in line with the moral duty owed to parents/guardians”, in a submission to the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment’s (NCCA) consultation process seen by The Irish Catholic.

While some criticise the curriculum for presenting no “overarching ethical perspective”, the CEP believes “this is a strength as it provides a vital space for the ethos of a school, of whatever religion or ethical worldview, to inform the curriculum”.

But the curriculum specification needs to be “strengthened” by an “explicit acknowledgement” of the role of ethos, and must provide “in a practical way” for the role of parents as the primary educators of their children.

Alan Hynes, CEP CEO, also called for the NCCA to include ‘spiritual’ in its ‘wellbeing section’, to encourage discussion of students spirituality.