The Education Minister assured on Thursday that the topic of gender identity remains in the Citizenship curriculum and that issues concerning sexual education are already addressed in other subjects, specifically in sciences.
In an interview with SIC Notícias, Fernando Alexandre responded to the controversy over changes to the subject following weeks of public debate about the possible removal of various topics from the curriculum, such as gender identity and topics related to sexual education, like dating violence.
The minister considered that people were “hasty” in drawing conclusions but does not rule out the possibility of future clarification on what the components of the new citizenship curriculum actually are.
On the issue of gender identity, Fernando Alexandre confirmed it remains in the curriculum and is “mentioned in historical examples where there was a lack of respect for others.”
“If there is a duty in a democracy, it is respect for others and respect for differences,” stated the minister, adding that this subject “should focus on training citizens for active civic participation.”
Regarding the content related to sexual education, the minister maintained that dating violence remains in the Government’s proposal and that other contents are already more effectively addressed in other disciplines “by teachers who know what they are talking about.”
“If sexual education depended on the citizenship subject until today, it would be a disaster in Portugal. This would be a disaster. Since the citizenship subject is not structured, we could have examples where it is structured and well-achieved and others where it might not be,” added the minister.
Fernando Alexandre recalled that since 2009, the themes to be discussed in sexual education are legislated for each school year and do not depend on the citizenship subject.
The changes, the minister argued, are for the subject to “stop being a focus of controversy and become what it has to be, which is to give an essential contribution to the training of citizens. That is what we want.”
For this purpose, the document explaining the new National Citizenship Education Strategy has been open for public consultation since July 21.
The minister also revealed in the interview that over 10,000 contributions to the document were sent and are being analyzed by the Directorate-General for Education.
“The public consultation is not a formality. It is genuinely about listening to people,” added the minister, who assured that the results from this analysis will be used by the Government to “improve the subject.”
