Education Secretary Nicky Morgan has informed UK faith-based schools that if they don’t comply with new rules requiring them to “actively promote British values,” including teaching tolerance of homosexuality, they could face closure.“Schools should broaden horizons, not close minds, and should encourage pupils to respect other people even if they do not agree with them. I should have thought this is a principle with which the vast majority of people would agree,” said Morgan.
Morgan is on record for having voted against same-sex “marriage,” but has since said she changed her mind about the issue.
The new rules introduced by the Department of Education give inspectors from the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) power to downgrade the ratings of, or even close, schools that do not conform to the Equality Act.
So the question now is will the Ulster Assembly enact this for faith schools in Northern Ireland – on June 13, 2013 Gary Spedding wrote:
…In Northern Ireland, there is already curriculum covering relationship and sex education, but, difficulty comes in the lack of consistent implementation. This must be addressed urgently by the Education Minister, John O’Dowd. I hope that he and indeed many others will share in the opinion, that implementing PSHE and RSE (Relationship and Sex Education) as compulsory topics of study in the NI curriculum would be an exceptionally positive initial step forward for Northern Ireland…
The Rainbow Project in Northern Ireland wrote:
…Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGB&T) young people are a vulnerable group in our society. The Department of Education has an obligation to ensure that these young people are not discriminated against and to actively promote equality of opportunity for them.
Educational structures in Northern Ireland are inherently and systemically heterosexist institutions. By heterosexist we mean that to be heterosexual is not simply considered as more common than same-sex attracted but as normal, correct and morally superior…We now face the absurd anomaly that an LGB&T sixteen-year old with a part time job is better protected in their place of employment than in their place of education.
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