A teenager from Co Laois has said the new draft Social, Personal and Health Education (SPHE) syllabus makes them "feel more accepted" as it will reflect LGBTQ+ identities, relationships and families.
The proposed syllabus was published earlier this week for public consultation and it will see sex education become mandatory for fifth and sixth year pupils. The aim is to have the programme in place for September 2024.
Molly Hickey, 18, has already finished school but they are happy that future pupils "won't have to feel as isolated as I did in the classroom".
"I'm a non-binary person and I read it (the draft syllabus) and it said they want to include more gender identities. For me, I felt like I didn't belong in the setting because I wasn't included in it. Non-binary wasn't discussed, it was all men or women," they said.
"That for me, made my experience a lot harder as a queer person in the school because I felt like they didn't want to discuss me, and that was hard."
Molly says other aspects of the syllabus that stood out to them are the issues regarding online safety and empathy in the classroom as "if people don't have a proper understanding, they can find it hard to have empathy".
For 18-year-old Aisling Comiskey, the section of the redeveloped curriculum that will address unhealthy relationships and gender-based violence is of particular importance.
"Recognising those behaviours is so important so you are able to know that you don’t deserve to be treated like that, that it’s not normal behaviour," she said.
"A lot of the hatred online is towards women and how they look and how they talk about themselves, and femme-presenting individuals as well. Having that education from an early onset point is so important."
Reflecting on the sex education she received in school, Ms Comiskey said: "It was taboo and not something that we talked about, I found that really disheartening because it’s a normal part of life and if it’s not taught properly, how are we supposed to know how to go about and to recognise signs of things that could be harmful?"
Bel Abulele, 16, is going into fifth year in September and is hopeful that the public consultation on the new SPHE syllabus will be successful as "more information, more awareness and more inclusion" is a positive thing.
"A lot of things that should be talked about, aren’t talked about," she said. "The new syllabus is a lot more inclusive to people of all backgrounds, people of all ethnicities, all sexualities and just everyone."
Speaking about the section that will explore sexual and reproductive health, including responses to unplanned pregnancy, they said this is crucial as "you might not know what to do, or that you have options."
