Education bureaucrats determined the state’s existing PDHPE coursework – implemented in 2018 – adequately met the requirements of the,which will be mandatory in all Australian schools from this term.
Chanel Contos started a national conversation two years ago with her Teach Us Consent campaign.Liliana Zaharia
Chanel Contos,the founder of the Teach Us Consent campaign which led to the creation of the national curriculum,said she was disappointed no change had been made.
“I am disappointed. Ideally,I would have liked them to update it and upgrade it,” she said.
After creating a social media movement that drew attention to former,particularly private schools,Contos’ Teach Us Consent petition gained more than 44,000 signatures supported by 7000 personal stories from young women.
It called for NSW schools to start teaching consent earlier and include lessons on rape culture,slut-shaming,sexual coercion,toxic masculinity,victim blaming,enthusiastic consent and queer sex.
Education Minister Sarah Mitchell said the current consent education course,made mandatory in 2020 before it was a national requirement,allowed children to learn “a range of comprehensive topics in an age-appropriate way”. She added that the K-10 PDHPE syllabus would be reviewed as part of the state’s curriculum reform currently underway.
“As with all syllabuses,there will be opportunities for stakeholders and members of the community to share their feedback,” she said.
The NSW parliament voted in October 2021 to overhaul consent education,in the midst of Contos’ campaign. The petition was sponsored by Greens MP Jenny Leong,supported by government MP Felicity Wilson and Labor’s Marjorie O’Neill.
Leong said the NSW government was clearly in denial about the scale of the problem.
“[They] have failed to listen to the calls of young women and survivors if they think there is nothing more they need to do to improve how holistic consent education is delivered in NSW schools.”
Hayley Foster,CEO of the Full Stop Foundation,said she expected a greater focus in the area,following the national discussion about attitudes toward consent and rape culture among teenagers.
“Survivors and particularly young people who have been impacted in this area are no longer staying silent,” she said,adding women aged 15 to 19 were most likely to be victims of sexual assault.
“We can’t wait,because we see every day on our counselling lines the devastating impact of not having this in schools.”
Elaheh Taheri,a survivor advocate with the foundation,was a complainant in a sexual assault case – arising outside school – at the end of her HSC year at a public high school in 2016.
Now studying secondary education,she was not confident what was on offer in NSW schools was working to dispel preconceptions about the “perfect victim” and the complexities of consent.
Student teacher and advocate Elaheh Taheri said she believed the current system allowed teachers to brush over consent education.Anna Kucera
“There was absolutely no mention of consent when I was in high school,and,unfortunately,there are teachers who treat topics like consent education and mental health like boxes to tick,” she said.
Last year,Western Australia and Queensland each updated their state school curriculum in light of the new national guidelines,implementing topics such as gender respect from early primary school.
Like NSW,Victoria also determined its existing curriculum was sufficient. However,Contos said she believed the Victorian curriculum was more comprehensive.
Reflecting on the campaign,Contos said she was encouraged that the national curriculum meant all independent schools would now have to teach consent education:Teach Us Consent began with Contos asking about her network’s experiences at three elite Sydney private schools.
“Now independent schools have to teach consent,which was kind of the big win,” she said,admitting the success of consent education in private schools had been “leadership dependent”.
“It depends on how much the individual principal cares about this issue,” she said.
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