Salacious verse an essential in education for the first time (5)
I believe the answer is:
dirty
'salacious' is the definition.
(similar in meaning)
'verse an essential in education for the first time' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'an' could be 'i' (Roman numeral for one) and 'i' is found within the answer.
'the' could be 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects) and 't' is located in the answer.
The remaining letters 'dry' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for dirty that I've seen before include "Lewd" , "Muddy" , "Begrimed" , "1971 film with Clint Eastwood" , "producing a lot of fallout" .)