LONDON — Schools in England should not teach children about gender identity, new U.K. government draft guidance says.
Under the document — which comes amid a fierce debate in the U.K. about gender and the rights of transgender people — teachers in England will be told not to teach “about the concept of gender identity.”
“It is important that schools take a cautious approach to teaching about this sensitive topic, and do not use any materials that present contested views as fact, including the view that gender is a spectrum,” it states. The rules will be subject to a 9-week consultation before being finalized.
The new guidance could also see English schools banned from introducing any sex education materials to children before school year 5, when pupils turn nine.
Britain’s Conservative government has increasingly leaned into the debate around gender, and previously ordered English schools to inform parents if their children want to transition gender.
Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch has also announced a law that would require newly-built restaurants, offices and some other public spaces to have separate male and female toilets, in an effort to crack down on “gender-neutral” toilets. Conservative MP Miriam Cates has led the charge for a rethink of sex education in schools.
Quizzed on the new measures for schools Thursday, Education Secretary Gillian Keegan told the BBC that “biological sex is the basis of relationship, sex and health education — not these contested views.”
Keegan said there had been “some evidence from some people” that pupils were being taught that there could be “72 genders.”
Pressed further on this claim, Keegan said: “Obviously there’s been loads of newspaper reports, we’ve had certain parents saying they couldn’t access materials and we’ve seen campaign group or lobby groups’ materials — some people say they’ve seen them in schools, some people saying we haven’t had them in our school.”
Teachers’ unions gave the new plan a frosty reception Thursday.
Daniel Kebede of the National Education Union said teachers already considered sex education in “an age-appropriate and phase-appropriate way.”
“The government appears to be seeding doubts that this is not already being done and thought about carefully by school leaders and teachers up and down the land,” he added. “This is yet more culture war noise from an ill-informed and out of touch government.”
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