“No one has the right to touch their body”: sex education in schools is an “absolute necessity” for Aurore Bergé

The new Minister for Equality between Women and Men, Aurore Bergé, stated on Tuesday that sex education, strongly criticized by conservatives under the previous Barnier government, constitutes an “absolute necessity”.

Sexuality education, which was the subject of a conservative backlash under the former Barnier government, is an “absolute necessity”, declared the new Minister for Gender Equality Aurore Bergé on Tuesday.

“I have always said […] that we have an absolute necessity to have an education in emotional life and sexuality from a very young age”, declared the Yvelines MP on RTL, the day after her appointment to the Bayrou government.

“Depending on the maturity of the children, we don't cover the same things in kindergarten and high school, for obvious reasons” but “from kindergarten, we can explain to our very grandchildren that no one has the right to touch their bodies, that no one has the right to hurt them”, she added.

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“What it means to 'say yes', what it means to + say no +, that is an absolute necessity when we talk about consent, it means learning respect, it means learning equality, equality between girls and boys, respect for all the families that exist in our country, quite simply, whether they are heterosexual or homosexual, and that is a necessity once again”, insisted Ms. Bergé.

Mandatory since 2001

Sex education in primary, secondary and high schools has been mandatory since 2001, at a rate of at least three annual sessions, but this provision is, in fact, little respected.

Initially planned for the start of the 2024 school year, the first program for education in emotional, relational and sexual life (Evars), currently being written, was to be presented on December 12 to the Higher Council of Education (CSE) with a view to publication for the next school year. But this meeting was cancelled after the Barnier government was censored.

“It is time for this to be the case” (for the programme to be effective, editor's note)”, said Aurore Bergé on RTL, specifying that she had “spoke about it yesterday evening (Monday evening, editor's note) with Elisabeth Borne” the new Minister of National Education and assuring that this subject would be “obviously a priority”.

An offensive by conservative organisations

Sexuality education has been the subject of an offensive for several years conservative organizations that gained strength in November with the statements of Alexandre Portier, then Minister Delegate for Educational Success. This member of the former Barnier government had notably declared that the draft program was “not acceptable in its current state” .

A few days after the end of the extraordinary trial of the Mazan rapes, Aurore Bergé also felt that it would be necessary “to try to be a little up to par” with Gisèle Pelicot, during her speech at the handover of power on Tuesday in Paris.

“This means being extremely demanding so that the definition of rape can finally be changed, so that consent be included in our penal code and defined”, she said, also calling for a change in the rules “on prescription”.