A petition made by Chanel Contos a few weeks ago, which has led to hundreds of young women speaking about their stories of sexual harassment, has led to the development of a revised sex education program.
According to The Daily Telegraph, federal Education Minister Alan Tudge praised traumatised schoolgirls for exposing a rape culture in some schools and said there will be changes made to the sex education system.
“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.
READ MORE: Chanel Contos behind petition calling for earlier sexual consent education in Sydney schools
“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.”
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.
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.
Sex education will be improved to teach students about “respect and consent”, Mr Tudge said.
The new Minister also criticised teacher training, and called for more engineers and accountants to retrain as maths and science teachers.
“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.’’
Sourced By: The Daily Telegraph
