A campaign has been launched in Rochdale following a new government project for primary schools which is set to be rolled out later this year.

The controversial Sex and relationships (SRE) studies, aimed to open up the minds of five year old primary school children towards understanding sexual behaviour, orientation and managing relationships is currently in the consultation process but has already sparked debate in many communities across the UK.

Rochdale residents have shown growing concern as many people had not been made aware of these plans for their children’s education.

Further, once in fruition, parents do not have the choice to opt their children out of the lessons.

The studies were designed with the perceived wisdom that ‘good sex education’ leads to better informed children and the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases (STIs), teenage pregnancies.

Britain remains the lead country in Europe with the highest figures of teenage pregnancies whilst number of abortions carried out on girls aged under 18 in Wales was at a five-year high, assembly government figures show.

Majed Iqbal, a Rochdale based blogger and community activist has embarked on a campaign to challenge the SRE project to be taught at primary schools.

“In the name of teaching good sex education to confront many social ills witnessed in Britain today, the government has failed to realise that such issues do not affect all communities. Muslim communities have distinct social values based on their Islamic way of life which have been a shield for many of the problems raised in the thinking of this project”

“How can teaching sex education to five year old children be a safeguard when you are exposing them to graphic detail which children may readily want to experiment at a young age?”

The Rochdale community mobilisation campaign, led by Majed Iqbal plans to firstly raise awareness on this issue, get petition signatures, mobilise women to take an added interest in their children’s education and the values departed to them at school, engage with religious institutions like mosques and churches to challenge the social values presented in the studies, attract the online community through a face book campaign and post video adverts on YouTube as well as distributing and posting leaflets to in English, Urdu and Bangla throughout Rochdale.

To join the campaign see: http://majedsblog.wordpress.com/