A government funded sex education program is encouraging schools to teach children as young as 13 years old about intimate sexual acts by rolling a dice. The dice is part of a sex education toolkit produced by the LGBT+ charity Proud Trust, which was awarded £99,960 2017 for their Sexuality aGender v2 project. It was launched with the help of funding from the Tampon Tax fund through the Office for Civil Society.

The sex toolkit is practically a game of dice where the dice is inscribed with body parts such as "penis," "hands and fingers," "anus" and "vulva" on each side. Students are to roll the dice and are asked to discuss and exchange views about conceivable ideas they have on sexual acts that can be carried out with these body parts.

The toolkit, which now also has its latest version, gathered much concern on how it may sexualise girls at a young and vulnerable age. The product also forewarns teachers to take into consideration that children may find it impossible to talk about the different combinations they might get from each roll.

The controversial Proud Trust toolkit describes the game on their website as a "fun, interactive, engaging and inclusive sexual health toolkit, for use in secondary schools, colleges and other youth settings."

In an article from The Times, the toolkit can be used to help schools meet statutory requirements to teach classes on relationships and sex education (RSE). This is to be part of the reforms being implemented in the coming academic school years.

Since its launch, the toolkit has sparked quite a bit of a stir with Members of Parliament as well as charity leaders as they claim the learning resource to be a breach of safeguarding measures.Tanya Carter, a spokeswoman for Safe Schools for Alliance said, "The tampon tax should be used to educate girls on their rights — not prematurely sexualise them."

She points out that when teaching young students on RSE, teachers need to be mindful of the possibility that some children could well be victims of sexual abuse or suffered sexual exploitation and may find this type of lesson material traumatising.

On the other hand, MP for Thurrock, Jackie Doyle-Price, fully supports the inclusion of RSE into schools and believes it would empower girls to learn more about their bodies and take greater control of caring for themselves. However, she has expressed her dismay on the Proud Trust toolkit saying, "it is with horror that I see materials being produced which do the exact opposite. Schools should be teaching about mutual respect and consent and safe sex."

BBC Active Sex Education
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