The new emotional and sexual life education program has been presented to trade union organizations. Several amendments have been deposited by all unions, notably about informing parents about the dates of these training courses.
Students in the small kindergarten section will receive a new teaching in emotional and sexual life. The new program was presented, Wednesday, January 29, to trade union organizations during a higher education council, we learned from France Inter. The first version of it was presented last spring by the former Minister of National Education, Anne Genetet, and several modifications had been made to meet the requirements of several conservative associations.
These had notably asked that the lessons of the courses and their content be given to the parents of students. But during the presentation of the new version of the program by Élisabeth Borne, several unions issued fears about this provision. The text stipulates that sexuality education has a compulsory character, but must not “replace the role of parents and families”. For Jérôme Fournier, national secretary of the UNSA teachers’ union, quoted by our colleagues from France Inter, this could be a problem: “We fear that it causes either absences of children, or demonstrations like certain associations are capable of To do as was the case in particular, ten years ago, at the time of the ABCD of equality “.
The FCPE considers that discussions must be carried out
On the side of the FCPE, the first union of the parents of students, we consider that preventing parents from the date and content of these courses is not necessarily a good thing, but that discussions must be carried out. Grégoire Ensemble, national vice-president of the FCPE, said at the microphone of franceinfoWednesday, January 29, that “there was a debate, but we finally took the position that it is a teaching like any other, and that a priori, we do not see why we would come to warn the parents of these sequences Educational. From this measure, because if we create a precedent, it may be necessary tomorrow to warn when we teach Shoah, or the religious fact, and that is not acceptable. “
The unions deposited 150 amendments after the presentation of the program. They consider in particular that “this text is progress”, as Grégoire asserts together, but that it was “watered down” compared to its first version. For him, it is necessary to “recall that homophobia is an offense, that grossophobia is prohibited”, as well as teaching the smallest to name the private parts of the human body.
The text presented is in two parts. The first concerns students of the nursery school in elementary school, where children will receive an education in emotional and relational life. The second concerns college and high school students, who will receive an education in emotional and relational life and sexuality. Its implementation should take place at the start of the school year in September 2025, but it could still be changed by then.