Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

I wanted to raise a slightly related issue, if I can, because of the volume of parents who have called my office in recent times on this issue. The Government is imposing a new SPHE curriculum on children as young as 12 years old in secondary schools. Much of the content of this is ideologically based and is not scientifically based. The textbooks that have been published have actually gone significantly further down the ideological road than even the curriculum. Parents’ groups, women's groups and psychotherapists have said that the textbooks contain misleading and unscientific content. I understand the Minister herself does not agree with some of the content that is published in these books.

We live in a pluralist Republic. This is meant to mean that we have a pluralist education system where parents are supposed to have the right to choose the school value system or ethos that represents them. Yet, the Minister has said that all schools must implement this ideological curriculum. She is deleting parental choice on this. She has said that parents can withdraw children, but if parents are forced to withdraw children in effect those children are being excluded from those classes. This is potentially exclusionary for thousands of children. What impact assessment has the Minister done on how this will affect children in the future?

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