Catholic schools advised to not make use of SPHE textbooks

Chief Executive Officer of the Catholic Education Partnership Alan Hynes has said that regardless of any apparent shift in tone from Minister for Education Norma Foley regarding the controversial content in the DCU course for SPHE teachers, with reports indicating that Minister Foley is “unhappy” with the content, which includes graphic descriptions of specific sexual acts, Catholic schools were advised not to make use of certain SPHE textbooks and this will remain the policy regardless of any decision the minister may or may not make in the future. 

“With regard to the textbooks issue, in one sense I’d almost view it as moot in the sense that Catholic schools were advised not to make use of these textbooks,” he said. “That was pretty much the advice we gave to schools and we directed them toward our own resources and supplemented those with resources found in the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment’s website. 

“That was our advice and that remains our guidance and advice to schools. Whether or not the department wants to look into what the textbook companies put into the textbooks, that’s a matter for the department. 

“This controversy will not affect any schools following the advice that came from the Catholic education bodies.” 

Meanwhile, TDs who have been campaigning for the removal of the content in the SPHE curriculum questioned why material of this nature was ever considered for inclusion in schools in the first place. 

Independent TD Mattie McGrath said that Minister Foley needed to answer questions about “how this situation had been allowed to arise”. 

“The buck stops with the minister,” he said. “There’s no escaping that. How did she allow SPHE to be taken over in this way? She needs to apologise and take action.” 

Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín said it’s clear that young people need to be taught about sex education but that any grounding in the subject must be free of “over-sexualised” themes.  

“It is clearly not suitable and totally age inappropriate,” he said. “Obviously children and young people need to be taught about sex education, they need to be taught about consent, they need to be taught about safety, but this material coupled with the videos was over-sexualised in the extreme.”  

Independent TD Carol Nolan said that “extremist voices” are to blame for the “relentless determination to sexualise children” and said that she will not accept this “poison” as “the new normal”. 

“I’m absolutely certain that what I would term extremist voices are exerting a powerful sphere of influence on our children’s school curriculum,” she said.  

“What is driving this relentless determination to sexualise children or to prompt them toward the exploration of what, until 5 minutes ago, were adult only themes? Well I for one and the very many parents who contact me will not simply accept this poison as the new normal,” she said.