Vol. 484 No. 2
32 Ms McManus asked the Minister for Education and Science when the long promised relationships and sexuality education courses in schools will be introduced; the progress, if any, which has been made in relation to teacher training for the courses; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21622/97]
To date, a significant amount of progress has been made to facilitate the introduction of relationships and sexuality education (RSE) to schools and it is expected that the majority of schools will introduce an RSE programme during the 1997-98 school year.
A training and support service has been established by my Department at the Drumcondra education centre and a national co-ordinator and an assistant co-ordinator for RSE have been appointed. All 21,000 primary teachers have completed a three day training programme in RSE and approximately 1,700 post-primary teachers have attended special training programmes of four to six days' duration. Curriculum guidelines were issued to all teachers in the context of the training programmes and a policy development pack on RSE for use by schools in preparing their policy in this area has also been issued. Copies of an information booklet for parents on RSE have been issued to schools for dissemination to all parents throughout the country.
