Grenada’s Minister of Education, David Andrew, has stated that there are no plans to include LGBTQ programming in schools or amend any laws or curriculum.
Andrew responded to online rumors about HLFE Curriculum revisions.
The Education minister told the Senate this week: “In the last few weeks there has been a lot of chatter about the government allegedly having a plan to introduce an LGBTQ curriculum in schools from September.
I don’t understand what an LGBTQ curriculum is, so I didn’t comprehend what people meant when they said the minister was hiding and calling out the minister.
I want to put it on record and make it categorically clear that the Ministry of Education… the government has no plan to change the curriculum, introduce any… well, I don’t even know what the LGBTQ curriculum is….(I’m struggling with that), or change the law contrary to what is being bandied about, and that the HLFE curriculum that is currently in use is the HLFE curriculum. The same one is used and won’t alter.”
The Education Minister said the confusion may be out of malice about an international technical guidance on comprehensive sexuality education.
Andrew claimed Grenada subscribed into a 2009 paper in 2018 under the old administration.
The education minister said teachers and guidance counselors were trained in 2019 about the international guidance document (not part of the curriculum), which should be tailored to the culture and values of the international communities you use or guide. He claimed Grenada is no exception.
Anything taken from the paper (which is a guide or reference, not a curriculum) must be altered and within the cultural norms of the society to which it is used.
“What’s the fear… what’s the worry,” remarked the Education Minister.
He added: “I want to assure every parent at home… I want to assure every school teacher…every guardian… any concerned Grenadian citizen, that under this government’s watch, we are committed to the values of the Grenadian people… there is no plan to change the curriculum to introduce sexuality education or a new LGBTQ curriculum or anything of that sort and we remain committed to our values.”
The education minister concluded, “I want to say we have an aversion to sexuality that we need to look at because that’s where the scare is coming from… because all those things are right around us… in the news, in the cartoons, in the advertisements, they are everywhere.” If we stick our heads in the sand like ostriches and tell education and the church to shut up, who teaches our children the proper values and how to make the right choices?
