Consent education cast aside for another year

The Ministry of Education says it expects consent and sexual harm education to be considered in 2024. Photo / NPR

The Ministry of Education put consent education off for another year at least, but activists say it cannot wait.  

After many campaigns for compulsory consent and sexual harm education in Aotearoa schools, the Ministry of Education expects it to be “considered” in the 2024 curriculum refresh.  

Genna Hawkins-Boulton, co-founder of Let’s Talk Consent, said, “I understand there is a lengthy and bureaucratic process to refresh the national curriculum. But I don’t believe consent education can wait.” 

Run by three young women, Let’s Talk Consent is an organisation promoting consent culture among youth.  

Currently the New Zealand curriculum does not refer to consent education explicitly but does include relationships and sexuality education.  

Hawkins-Boulton said there was a “detrimental” disconnect between youth and policy makers. 

According to Help Auckland, 16‒24-year-olds were four times more likely to be sexually assaulted than any other age group.  

Hawkins-Boulton said, “The voices of young people are being suppressed, despite their demographic dominating the statistics of sexual harm victims and their stories consistently making news headlines.” 

“I would hope the Ministry will prioritise its focus on ensuring consent is a comprehensive and holistic component of health education.”  

She said findings suggest there is a lack of focus on te ao Māori teaching methods around consent and hopes this will be considered in the refresh too.  

While she believes consent education should be compulsory, Hawkins-Boulton said schools are self-governing entities and have the power to ensure consent education themselves.  

“I’ve spoken to a couple of schools who made consent education compulsory in Health education because they couldn’t wait for the Ministry’s decision.” 

Hawkins-Boulton met with MPs and party leaders from Labour, National, Green and Act last year to discuss compulsory consent education and wider implementation of consent culture outside of the health curriculum.  

She said while the general consensus was positive, “there needs to be a greater push from our communities to ensure each party is held accountable when supporting consent education”.  

“It was interesting to see what each party’s perspective was on making consent a compulsory component in the national curriculum.” 

In March, the organisation started the #IStandForConsent campaign, advocating for compulsory consent education across all schools in Aotearoa.  

“We’ve received support from a range of different age groups which was awesome to see, the value of teaching consent can be understood across generations.” 

Ministry of Education acting general manager of the New Zealand Curriculum Julia Novak said the New Zealand curriculum content is being developed and released in phases.  

She said the health and physical education learning area was on track to be refreshed in 2024.  

“Relationships and sexuality education is included in this learning area, and we expect consent and sexual harm education to be considered during this refresh,” Novak said.  

However, she did not answer Massive’s question of when in 2024 the curriculum would be refreshed.  

Starting this year, Massey University provided first year students with a compulsory consent education night before the start of O-Week.  

Many students felt the Don’t Guess the Yes event taught them more than they learnt in high school.  

Massey representatives said the university will continue to hold consent education events before O-Week.