Transgender guidance scrapped for NI primary schools

Guidance to Northern Ireland primary schools that children can become aware that they are transgender "between the ages of three and five" has been removed.

The guidance was part of recent Relationship and Sex Education (RSE) resources provided by the Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (CCEA).

But CCEA has recently reviewed LGBTQ+ guidance for primary schools contained on its online RSE hub.

In a statement to BBC News NI, CCEA said that the content "was removed as it referenced research which is over 10 years old".

The previous guidance for primary schools stated that it aimed to support "transgender or gender-questioning children".

"Research shows that transgender young people become aware that their assigned birth sex is different from their gender identity between the ages of three and five," it had said.

The guidance was based on research into the experiences of transgender young people in Northern Ireland funded by the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister (OFMDFM), published in 2013.

It had formed part of a much wider range of RSE resources provided by CCEA for schools to use.

Each school in Northern Ireland is required by the Department of Education to teach RSE to pupils.

But what is actually taught about RSE is a matter for each school to decide based on their school ethos.

However, following a law change at Westminster in 2023 post-primary schools in Northern Ireland will be expected in future to teach pupils about issues such as access to abortion and prevention of early pregnancy.

Alexa Moore is from the Rainbow Project charity which supports LGBTQ+ people living in Northern Ireland.

On the change to the transgender guidance, she said: "It's clear that this change is being made on a technicality, rather than an explicit change of policy.

"Whatever the guidance says, we know that trans people explore their identity and come out across a wide range of ages, and they deserve support regardless of that age."

The charity said it is committed to working with CCEA, the Department of Education (DE) and Education Minister Paul Givan "to ensure that this is the case".

The charity was previously critical of Mr Givan for choosing not to discuss RSE provision with it, but meeting representatives from the Christian Institute on the same topic.

"We would welcome more investment in research on the needs and experiences of trans and gender-diverse young people in primary education, with the view to ensuring that those young people are supported and given the space to explore their identity in a safe and non-directive manner," Ms Moore added.

Others have welcomed the previous guidance being removed.

Fiona McAnena is director of campaigns at the human rights charity Sex Matters, which campaigns to protect single-sex services.

She said the previous guidance was "encouraging children to take on board gender stereotypes and to use them to judge themselves and judge other people".

"That is not progressive," she told BBC News NI.

She welcomed the guidance being changed.

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"Sometimes you do have to make special provision for individual children," she said.

"If there is a little boy who's hugely distressed about using the boys' toilets – for whatever reason – then a school may try to make separate arrangements for them, if that's possible.

"But you can't let them go into the girls toilets because then that affects everyone else.

"It's certainly progress that people are not being told that three-year-old boys know that they're really girls," she continued.

"That's just dangerous and foolish.

"Everyone should be free from stereotypes and children should not be encouraged to think that maybe if they don't confirm to stereotypes they're the other sex."

But do primary schools not need guidance on transgender pupils?

"There is a need for guidance, but no child is transgender," Fiona McAnena replied.

"Most children who are confused about their sex grow out of that through puberty."

She said that recent new guidance for schools in England said that every child should be treated with "care".

"Our belief is that you cannot safeguard children if you cannot be honest about their sex," she said.

In their statement to BBC News NI, a spokesperson for CCEA said that "in quality assuring the site, the content was removed as it referenced research which is over 10 years old".

"In line with its quality control processes, CCEA will ensure that the content and guidance on the Hub is reviewed on an ongoing basis and updated as appropriate."