CHILDREN as young as five in Wirral schools are being shown explicit drawings of naked men and women as part of a controversial sex education pack.

Wirral Conservatives' education spokesman, Councillor Jeff Green, warns that instead of protecting children and their innocence, Wirral's education department is instructing teachers to teach sexual matters so explicit 'that most adults would be disgusted'.

"Following the furore surrounding the Wirral Guide to Homosexuality, I was approached by a number of Wirral teachers concerned by the pack which shows male and female organs."

Coun Green says he found totally repugnant the suggestion that girls "should be encouraged to use hand mirrors so they can clearly see what their sexual organ looks like."

The controversy has already dominated a Radio Merseyside phone-in. Both the Healthwise Advisory Service and Wirral's Labour education chairman Mick Groves insist that the education packs only go out to schools which ask for them. "Then only after the approval of parents and governors. It is up to the schools to decide if they want to use the packs or not," said Coun Groves.

The packs are designed in key stages, five to seven-year-olds, and seven to 11-year-olds. The drawings are too sexually explicit for publication in the Globe showing an erect penis, vagina and clitoris.

Wirral Education Committee next meets on Wednesday, July 1, but the issue isn't on the agenda. Coun Green, who has a daughter starting primary school this September, says he has made his views known to the Director of Education.

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