Parents groups and teachers say a recent report issued by the curriculum authority seems to have “deliberately downplayed” the fact that the “vast majority” of submissions made by parents on proposed new sex-ed classes were “strongly opposed to teaching transgender ideology and porn in schools.”
They claim that “thousands of parents who made their voices heard to the consultation process on the curriculum were ignored and dismissed” while “undue emphasis was given to a select group of NGOs and individuals whose views are radically at odds with parents.”
4,353 parents are on record as responding to the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment consultation, while there were written submissions from another 55 individuals – and emails/letters from 317 individuals.
Parents made by far the most submissions – by a factor of ten to one – to the consultation.
Groups such as the Parents Rights Association and the Irish Education Alliance say that thousands of parents had contacted them to make submissions because they were opposed to teaching school students that ‘gender is a spectrum’, along with concerns that porn literacy would be taught in class; and that too much ‘early sexualisation’ of children was becoming a trend in the NCCA’s direction on sex-ed.
“The vast majority of those 4,353 submissions are from parents opposed to the changes favoured by the NCCA, yet the body was openly dismissive of parents – and even included in their report to the Minister the idea that parents would not have the right to remove their children from these new RSE classes,” the parents’ group said.
The NCCA has refused to give Gript a breakdown on the submissions received by parents – and it has also refused to name the nine experts within the HSE referenced in the report who were consulted in writing the draft report on the new sex-ed programme.
Despite almost a dozen emails and phone calls, the NCCA did not provide Gript with the information requested.
The NCCA was asked by Gript to give further information on what the curriculum body had described as a “sub-set of parents …[who] expressed strong criticism of the proposed updated junior cycle SPHE curriculum”, specifically in relation to the RSE curriculum.
Gript asked: “what proportion of submissions from the 4,353 parents were critical of proposals to include ‘gender identity’ in the curriculum?” and what proportion was supportive of same.
Similar requests for information were made regarding the proportion of submissions from parents who were opposed to proposals to include pornography in the curriculum – or were “concerned about the lack of reference to morality, moral teachings or family values” in the draft specification.
What proportion of submissions from the 4,353 parents said they would like to see “the specification reflect a school’s right to teach topics in a manner that aligns with the school’s ethos and values” was also asked, but the information was not forthcoming from the NCCA.
The NCCA’s report gave greater weight and emphasis to other stakeholders other than parents, although under the Irish Constitution parents are the primary educators of their children, the parents’ group said.
SPHE teachers have also expressed concern with one telling Newstalk recently that that there was an “ongoing trend” in education of ‘over-sexualising’ children” – and that the NCCA had developed a “highly-sexualised RSE programme for 12-15 year olds with an almost obsessive focus on gender ideology”.
The Parents Rights Association described the NCCA’s report as giving a “misleading” impression saying that it was written to give the impression that the proposed changes were supported across the board even though parents were strongly opposed to the changes.
They say that their campaign to ensure parents voices are heard will continue and that the new draft curriculum remains “absolutely unacceptable” and that gender ideology could prove “dangerous and confusing” for young students.
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