Parents of school learners should be informed upfront regarding topics in the Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) curriculum, says Freedom of Religion SA (FOR SA), amidst an outcry following a Sunday Times article entitled Grade 4s to learn about masturbation in new life orientation curriculum.
While the Department of Basic Education (DBE) has been quick to deny and distance itself from the report, and accused the journalist of misrepresenting its plans, it is important that they hear loud and clear that this is a topic of deep interest and concern to South African parents, says FOR SA executive director Michael Swain.
According to the article in the Sunday Times yesterday, it was proposed that from next year textbooks for pupils in grades 4 to 12 will reflect a “cutting edge” CSE curriculum that treats masturbation, sexual consent, gender nonconformity and single-parent families as mainstream.
“Parents of learners (typically through their school governing body) should at least have the opportunity to know in advance the topics which any CSE curriculum will be teaching.
“Parents should further have the option to withdraw their child/ren from such teaching in the event that it conflicts with their own value systems,” says Swain.
FOR SA says in a press release that it has met with the DBE on a number of occasions to raise concerns on how CSE will be implemented in South Africa. The talks have mainly revolved around respecting parents’ rights in terms of not being forced to expose their children to being taught about sex and sexuality, which may be in conflict with their own values, belief and opinions.
Unlike (say) mathematics, teaching on sex will always have an underlying value system, which should therefore be the prerogative and the right of parents, since they have the primary responsibility to educate their own children, not the State, says FOR SA
It says: “The danger – clearly evidenced by how CSE has been implemented internationally – is that CSE is typically aimed at sexualising children, rather than teaching them about sex and its responsibilities.”
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