2023-09-30 15:31:00
This course, compulsory since 2012 but poorly provided due to lack of resources, aims to “protect” students “from potentially dangerous or problematic situations”. Since the start of the school year, he has been targeted by ultra-conservative circles.
Several dozen people took part this Saturday in Brussels in a demonstration once morest a sex education course in schools, which sparked controversy in French-speaking Belgium.
Crying “don’t touch our children”, these demonstrators were protesting once morest the decision of the French-speaking authorities of Belgium to introduce a two-hour course per year for two age groups, intended to answer students’ questions on these sensitive subjects. .
But since the start of the school year, the program has sparked a revolt on social networks and calls for demonstrations from ultra-conservative circles, notably Islamic associations and traditionalist Catholics from Civitas.
An investigation opened following fires broke out in schools
Belgian justice opened an investigation into “arson” in mid-September, following fires broke out in four schools targeted by opponents of these courses.
“Talking regarding sexuality publicly to children can frustrate them. It is up to parents to talk regarding sexuality, not the State,” protested one of the demonstrators, Gregory Bourguignon, interviewed by AFP.
This course, presented by the French-speaking Minister of Education Caroline Désir as a two-hour “animation” by approved external speakers, concerns students in the sixth level of primary school (11-12 years old) and those in the fourth level of secondary school ( 15-16 years old).
“Reassure” students and “protect” them
Mandatory since 2012, it was not systematically insured until then due to lack of resources. Its aim is to “reassure students regarding the questions they ask themselves during puberty” and to “protect them from potentially dangerous or problematic situations”, insisted the minister, citing “sexism, sexual violence, gender stereotypes”.
A first demonstration had already taken place on September 17 without preventing the final adoption of the text by the French-speaking Belgian assemblies.
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