“Attacking our schools is attacking the future of our children”: at the opening of the Brussels Parliament this Monday, September 18, its president Rachid Madrane spoke of the acts of vandalism which targeted several schools, indicates the Belgian newspaper The last hour. Last week, eight schools in Wallonia were the target of fires in the cities of Charleroi and Liège, attributed to opponents of the “Evras” program, according to The evening.
These five letters refer to the program “education in relational, emotional and sexual life” (Evras), adopted by majority by decree on Thursday September 7, intended for education in French-speaking Belgium. This arouses the anger of Catholic fundamentalist associations such as Civitas, but also of Islamist groups, at the origin of a vast disinformation campaign.
Anti-LGBT and IVG
1,500 people gathered on Sunday September 17 in Brussels according to The future, brandishing signs “disguised pedophilia”, or “don’t touch our children”. During various rallies, and in leaflets distributed at school exits, the movement accuses the emotional life education program of perverting children and encouraging them to engage in precocious sexuality.
In the ranks of demonstrations called by conspiracy or far-right organizations, many slogans also attack LGBT rights or abortion. This false campaign has also gained influence in France. Thus, the rapper Rohff, for example, relayed this fake news on […] Sign this petition quickly and spread it as much as possible.”
Wishing to end the controversy, the Minister of Education of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, Caroline Désir, denied last week the allegations broadcast by the anti-Evras network. “We are obviously not going to encourage hypersexualization among young people, nor create a sexual orientation or gender identity.”
“I read that we were going to teach children to masturbate, it is completely unacceptable to scare parents on this subject,” added the minister on radio La Première (RTBF). Bénédicte Linard, the French-speaking Minister of Children and Health, for her part called on Sunday, on the private Belgian channel RTLparents to distance themselves from false information published on social networks.
Themes by age
Because in reality the system has already existed since 2012, provided by family planning facilitators, explains the RTBF, but it is only organized in 20% of schools, due to lack of resources. The decree adopted on September 7 makes it compulsory throughout the Wallonia-Brussels Federation. According to the Minister of Education, it is “an activity” intended for sixth and second grade students. Its goal is to “reassure them about questions they ask themselves during puberty” and “protect them from potentially dangerous or problematic situations”, such as “sexism, sexual violence, gender stereotypes”.
The official website of the device Evras also explains “that depending on the age, these activities take different forms and address different themes of relational life (emotions, friendship, forgiveness, mourning, respect for others, knowing how to say no, knowing its limits, etc.), emotional (love, hugs, consent, etc.) and sexual (the human body, the five senses, human procreation, puberty, etc.)”. The topics discussed are never imposed on children or adolescents but are based on the questions they wish to address.