Three associations in court facing the State. SOS Homophobia, Sidaction and family planning announced on Wednesday that they were attacking the State before administrative justice to force it to organize at least three sex education sessions at school each year, as provided for by law.
According to the Education Code, students in schools, colleges and high schools must benefit from at least three annual sexuality education sessions, including awareness-raising on gender-based and sexual violence. In practice, however, we are far from the mark, say the associations, for whom these themes “remain neglected by the public authorities”.
The objective “is obviously not achieved”, admitted in 2021 a report from the General Inspectorate of Education. According to a recent Ifop poll, commissioned by the three associations and carried out among a thousand young people aged 15 to 24, 17% of those questioned said they had never had any lessons on the question, and among the others, only a third say they have benefited from the three planned annual sessions.
Failure to comply with the law with unfortunate consequences
However, the non-application of the law is not without consequences, insist the associations, which highlight the 33% increase in sexual violence between 2020 and 2021. In addition, “for years, we have seen a deterioration of young people’s knowledge of HIV,” said Florence Thune, CEO of Sidaction.
For the associations, only sexuality education, “from an early age”, should make it possible to “attack at the root of inequalities and gender violence”. In September, the Minister of National Education Pap Ndiaye had ordered in a circular the “strengthening” of this education, asking that it become “effective from this school year”. “We must respect the law,” insisted the minister.