As a general election inches closer into view, the embittered debates circulating inside British politics have entered a new arena: the classroom. <\/p>\n
New guidance unveiled by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak\u2019s government on Thursday seeks to overhaul the way sex education and gender identity is taught in England\u2019s schools, a significant intervention into a delicate topic that appeared suddenly on the front pages of Britain\u2019s newspapers a day before the announcement. <\/p>\n
The government says the revised guidance, which came amid pressure from a handful of its lawmakers, provides clarity on a complex topic, emphasizing facts over what it calls \u201ccontested views\u201d about gender identity. <\/p>\n
But critics of the plans \u2013 among them a swath of teachers and teaching union leaders \u2013 say the move is a politicized attempt to appeal to a narrow cohort of voters the government is in danger of losing, months before a general election. <\/p>\n
And they arrived amid what most see as the death throes of Sunak\u2019s flailing government, which has for months seized upon and discarded a number of divisive topics in the hopes of reversing a stubborn polling deficit. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the first time you hear about those is in a headline on a tabloid newspaper, then that doesn\u2019t reassure you that the right research is taking place, and that the right level of integrity is behind the decision-making,\u201d Di\u2019lasio said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing is young people, and their health and wellbeing, and their care and guidance, being used as a political football.\u201d <\/p>\n
The new draft guidance from the government, published Thursday, takes aim at the way sex and relationships are taught to English children in both primary and secondary schools. <\/p>\n
Those lessons have been compulsory at schools in England since 2020, but the government says it reviewed how they are taught after \u201creports of pupils being taught inappropriate content\u201d in some schools. <\/p>\n
Under the new approach, children can\u2019t be taught sex education before the age of nine, while \u201cexplicit discussion of sexual activity\u201d will be delayed until children are 13. <\/p>\n
Gender identity, or the fact that people can change gender, is meanwhile \u201chighly contested and should not be taught\u201d at all, according to the Department of Education. <\/p>\n
The government said that teaching what it calls the \u201ctheory\u201d of gender identity \u201ccould prompt some children to start to question their gender when they may not have done so otherwise\u201d \u2013 a suggestion that has been angrily contested by LGBTQ+ rights groups. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt is hard to see how rigid limits on what can be discussed and when would be in the best interests of young people \u2013 and this may even risk them seeking information from less reliable sources,\u201d Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said in a statement. <\/p>\n
Sam Freedman, a senior adviser to the Ark education charity and a senior fellow at the Institute for Government think tank, added on X: \u201cIsn\u2019t something being highly contested a good reason to talk about it in schools – acknowledging that it is highly contested and explaining why?\u201d <\/p>\n
The plans will be subject to a nine-week consultation period, which will conclude before the start of Britain\u2019s next school year. <\/p>\n
But the uncertain timing of a general election \u2013 due by January, and expected in the second half of the year \u2013 muddies the waters further as to when, or if, the guidance will ever be implemented. <\/p>\n
And, as with many of the government\u2019s recent announcements, its unveiling was accompanied by a string of combative language that played into the \u201cculture war\u201d topics the Conservatives have increasingly sought to thrust into the national discourse. <\/p>\n
Education Secretary Gillian Keegan wrote in The Sun newspaper that \u201cteachers are there to teach children facts, not push the agendas of \u00adcampaign groups.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cNever again will young girls be taught they might be that \u00adlittle bit happier if they were a boy,\u201d she added. <\/p>\n
Transgender rights have been the target of heavy-handed rhetoric from the government for several months, as Sunak looks to goad his opponent, Labour leader Keir Starmer, away from debates about the economy and healthcare, and toward issues surrounding identity. <\/p>\n
Those efforts ultimately sparked huge controversy when Sunak made a transgender jibe toward Starmer in Parliament in February, while the mother of Brianna Ghey, a 16-year-old transgender girl who was murdered last year, watched from the public gallery. <\/p>\n
\u201cOne does wonder whether (the guidance) is connected to the fact that we\u2019re moving into a general election, and it is purely being used to gain votes of a particular section of society,\u201d Di\u2019lasio said. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt is utterly disgraceful that once again this government has decided to engage in private briefings and media leaks simply to grab headlines,\u201d Whiteman, the head teachers\u2019 union boss, added. \u201cThe children and young people of this country deserve better.\u201d <\/p>\n
Asked by the BBC on Thursday how widespread \u201cinappropriate\u201d teaching on gender identity was, Keegan admitted: \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s widespread \u2013 I mean, I don\u2019t know, because it\u2019s not something that we\u2019ve gone and done a particular survey of.\u201d <\/p>\n
Sunak will hope this week\u2019s headlines can add ammunition to his effort to portray himself as a defender of \u201ccommon sense,\u201d a catch-all term that the prime minister frequently uses as he scrambles to maintain the support of socially conservative voters. <\/p>\n
But education specialists worry that school pupils have become the latest victim of that push. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut when a political ideology comes into it, it becomes more difficult for the whole of the education world to move behind it,\u201d he added. \u201cMy worry is that if we\u2019re not careful, there will be young people that are not cared for and not educated in the way we want them to be.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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