“Sexual education is one of the essential aspects of informed and enlightened citizenship, therefore the public school must be a factor of equal opportunities, a factor of social progress, and above all, a factor of cohesion,” argued the speaker to journalists in Aljustrel, in the district of Beja.
In this way, the statement continued, the Socialist Party views “education, culture, and citizenship because they are dimensions that integrate the same vision of the country and society.”
The socialist leader was questioned by journalists during the final stop today of the “For Cohesion and Land Enhancement” route, traveling along the National Road 2 (EN2) across the country, about the changes approved today by the Government to the Citizenship subject.
Minister of Education Fernando Alexandre announced today that the National Strategy for Citizenship Education was approved in the Council of Ministers, after public consultation suggestions were analyzed, with the “dimension of sexual education” becoming more explicit.
The new decree involves a “structural change in the subject’s functioning” that will be published in the Official Gazette on Friday, the same day schools will receive guidance for the discipline’s implementation, which will take effect this school year.
With less than two weeks before classes start, the minister acknowledged it would be “very difficult to be fully operational,” and thus the management will send information to schools so that by the end of the first term, they can approve a “school strategy for the subject,” which will then be reflected in the classes.
Sexuality topics are now integrated into the health domain, with various associations and experts criticizing the elimination of topics related to sexuality from central learning.
Regarding the Citizenship subject, the PS secretary-general recalled that when he was Minister of Internal Administration, he had “a priority” for that area.
“To develop a national program for young people in the 10th grade to have basic skills in civil protection and basic life support. Here’s a good essential content for citizenship training,” he exemplified, also advocating for “another very important area” related to young people receiving notions of public administration, that is, “fundamental notions of democratic life and democratic institutions that should be developed.”
