Scotland’s under-fire schools quango recommended lessons on pornography addiction for eight-year-olds in draft curriculum documents, the Mail can reveal.
Education Scotland is at the centre of a row over the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to help create a series of papers about reforming the syllabus.
Now it has emerged that a paper on health and wellbeing, which was published online, called for lessons on dealing with addiction to pornography for children as young as eight.
Bosses at the quango said the document had been updated this month but refused to explain why the plan was dropped – or whether AI was to blame for its original inclusion.
The first draft containing the reference to pornography is still available online.
Scottish Conservative education spokesman Meghan Gallacher said: ‘Serious questions must be asked why this reference ever appeared in a document published by an SNP quango. Many parents will be appalled.’
A June draft of Education Scotland’s Health and Wellbeing framework included a call for lessons on tackling ‘addiction including but not limited to… pornography’ for pupils in P5 to P7. The reference formed part of the Curriculum Improvement Cycle, the Scottish Government’s flagship curriculum reform programme.
Scottish Conservative education spokesman Meghan Gallacher
After questions were raised by the Mail, Education Scotland pointed to a later version of the framework in which the pornography reference had been removed entirely but did not explain why pornography was included in the draft or why it was subsequently removed.
Quango staff began making changes to the error-strewn curriculum documents when concerns were raised by whistleblower Brodie Runciman.
He found about 20 references which he believes related to articles, books and reports that do not exist, suggesting the authors may have used ‘fabricated sources’. Former Downing Street adviser Chris McGovern, chairman of the Campaign for Real Education, criticised both the original pornography reference and the wider draft curriculum.
He said: ‘The draft document is likely to alarm many parents since its proposals will rob youngsters of their childhood and almost certainly add to juvenile unhappiness and mental health problems.’
An Education Scotland spokesman said: ‘The document referred to was an earlier working draft, which has been superseded.’
Education Secretary Mairi McAllan has said ‘change and progress’ are coming to Scotland’s curriculum in ‘the largest reform to Curriculum for Excellence since its inception’.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘We understand that Education Scotland was made aware of some errors in the Curriculum Improvement Cycle evidence papers and has since rectified them.’
