Bolivian Teachers Protest Against Sex Education

Teachers’ unions have joined forces with the Evangelical church in Bolivia to protest against the government’s new curriculum. The two main points of contention are the introduction of sexual education and references to the 2019 coup as part of the history curriculum.

The urban teacher’s confederation, led by the Trotskysist ‘POR’ party, says that it will boycott the curriculum and will teach the old one. Union secretary Patricio Molina says

“At our conference, we resolved to reject the new curriculum, therefore, we are not going to apply it. We hope that the determination of our organization is worth more than the abuse and arrogance of the authorities that want to force teachers to implement this.” 

“The constitutional rupture of 2019” appears as content of the sixth year of secondary school, according to the text Plans And Programs Secondary Community Productive Education 2023, published by the Ministry of Education.

Lawmaker for Fernando Camacho’s Creemos, Laura Rojas, said she regretted that the government’s introduction of the “fable of the coup” in the contents of the curriculum. She described as an “aberration” and “shameful” that the Ministry of Education is trying to “indoctrinate” students.

The Episcopal Conference of Bolivia (CEB) also condemned the government, saying, “We encourage parents, teachers, and students to have a critical approach based on principles and values, not on ideological impositions outside the field of scientific and human education. Education must be subject to the truth and not to ideological manipulation.” 

Paulo Abrão, former head of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights commented on the dispute, “Gender is about identity, not ideology. Gender ideology is a pejorative term (without academic legitimacy) for policies on sex education, women’s rights, and LGBT issues. Its use is a trap for political disputes against human rights.”

By Kawsachun News

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