The Welsh government is making sex education mandatory for public school children from the age of 5 with no “opt-outs,” and a parents’ advocacy group says the decision undermines the traditional role of parents.

The Safe at School campaign’s Antonia Tully says the new rule on Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE), effective in 2021, ignored 88.7% of parents who responded in a government survey that parents should have the right to withdraw their children from LGBTQ-oriented lessons.

“The Welsh government has effectively taken over the education of children and teenagers in the sensitive and intimate areas of human relationships and sexuality,” Tully told the Catholic Universe website in Britain. “This is the task of parents, not the state. And, critically, parents are being denied their right to bring up their children in line with their own beliefs and values.”

Tim Dieppe, head of public policy at Christian Concern, agrees: “Governments and Education Authorities need to start listening to the concerns of parents who are worried about what their children will be taught. There is a simple answer to this whole dispute: stop teaching about same-sex relationships in primary schools.

“LGBT activists are so determined to indoctrinate our children that they cannot even consider compromise on this issue of faith and religious freedom. … Christians must take an active interest in what is being taught to their children and be prepared to take their children out of certain lessons. The hearts and minds of the next generation depend on it.”