The new sex education curriculum for Junior Cycle students will require students to appreciate how “sexual orientation and gender identity are experienced and expressed in diverse ways”.
The curriculum specification for the new SPHE (social personal and health education) programme, seen by The Irish Times, is due to be published shortly and rolled out in schools from September next.
It follows a Government-commissioned review of sex education at primary and second level which found that the 20-year-old syllabus was out of date, too focused on biology and did not reflect the reality of young people’s lives or LGBTQ issues.
Teaching around gender identify has sparked controversy with some Catholic groups, in particular, accusing policymakers of seeking to promote a “new gender self-identity doctrine”.
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By contrast, many campaign and civil society groups have called for a focus on gender identity as part of a wider need to promote awareness over LGBTQ issues.
The 26-page curriculum specification set out an overview of the course content and learning outcomes, with a focus on three main strands: (1) understanding myself and others; (2) making healthy choices; (3) relationships and sexuality.
The specification, say sources, is aimed at promoting dialogue and discussion about these issues in a safe setting with an informed teacher. They reject allegations it has been “hijacked” by non-governmental organisations.
The curriculum, which will provide 100 hours of learning over the three-year Junior Cycle for 12-15 year olds, also addresses issues such as self-awareness and self-esteem, emotional wellbeing, use of pornography and issues such as sexual consent.
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Schools will be expected to follow learning outcomes detailed in the document, even if they believe it clashes with their ethos. More latitude, however, will be given to schools in the detail of how these issues are taught and the resources used.
One of the learning outcomes says students should be able to “recognise the factors and influences that shape young people’s self-identity, such as family, peers, culture, gender identity, sexual orientation, race/ethnic background, dis/abilities, religious beliefs/world-views.”
Another learning outcome says students should be able to “appreciate the breadth of what constitutes human sexuality, and how sexual orientation and gender identity are experienced and expressed in diverse ways”.
The final curriculum specification includes some changes from an earlier draft, which referred to gender identity being experienced “along a spectrum”.
A reference to “cisgender” – which defined the term as “when someone’s gender identity aligns with the sex they were assigned at birth” – has also been omitted from the final document.
The draft document attracted criticism from the Catholic Secondary School Parents Association which accused policymakers of “seeking to promote an ideology that refuses to acknowledge basic biological facts in favour of a new gender self-identity doctrine”.
The Association of Patrons and Trustees of Catholic Schools said Catholic school ethos must be accommodated to take account of the “constitutionally protected right of patrons to run their schools from a faith-based perspective”.
Genspect, an “alliance of professionals, parent groups, trans people, detransitioners”, said the draft course promoted a “narrow-minded gender affirmative approach and assumes that everyone – students, parents and school staff – believes in the gender identity belief system”.
However, the draft syllabus drew broadly supportive submissions from a range of non-governmental organisations who said the emphasis on gender identity was “very important”.
The Transgender Equality Network of Ireland (Teni) said it particularly welcomed “the mention of the spectrum of sexual orientation, gender identity and expression”. BelongTo youth services said many young people had been calling for improvements to relationships and sexuality education for years.
Once the curriculum specification is published, the next step is that more detailed teaching guidance will be produced, along with in-service training for SPHE teachers.
An updated SPHE curriculum specification will follow for Senior Cycle at post-primary in 2024 and at primary level in 2025.
The Government has pledged that the new curriculum will be age-appropriate and include an “inclusive programme on LGBTQ+ relationships”.
