The Romanian Patriarchy is opposing the sexual education classes in schools, arguing they should be optional, basilica.ro reports.
“We consider that mandatory sexual educational classes in schools represent an attack against the children’s innocence, by obstructing their natural development and by affecting them for good,” the Romanian Orthodox Church (BOR) says in a document sent to the Presidency, PM’s office and to the Education ministry.
The document also includes this reference to the sexual education classes, with the Church arguing that the sexual education class is included within other subjects in some European countries, while in others this subject is not independent and is not binding.
The law introducing educational classes in schools, at least once every six months, to include information about life, health and including on sexual education.
BOR argues that the Romanian Constitution stipulates that parents are the ones to provide their minor children with education “according to their own beliefs”, in article 29, paragraph 6, and that “the freedom of opinions and of religious convictions cannot be restricted in any form”. As, “nobody can be forced to adopt an opinion or adhere to a religious conviction against his/her beliefs”, so “there is no objective ground for the State to impose an ideological pattern in the children’s education, to get over the parents’ agreement and convictions“, says the Church.
“We consider that mandatory sexual educational classes represent an attack against the innocence of the children, preventing their natural growth and affecting them for good. In this respect, several studies in various countries have proved that such an approach of the children’s education have prompted them to start their sexual life earlier, with some appropriate negative effects, and with no improvement on social level. For instance, the analysis on the sexual education classes in the United States conducted in 2019 by the Institute for Research and Evaluation, an U.S. independent body shows that the sexual education programmes in public schools are not efficient and some have even prompted to increasing the rate of pregnancies among teen mothers, to decreasing the age of starting the sexual life, as well as to risky sexual conducts. The conclusion is that such programmes are rather of “sexual indoctrination” than of “education”, BOR states.
The Romanian Church also says that in other EU states, the sexual education classes are held within other subjects, like in the case of Austria, Greece, Ireland, Latvia, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, while in other countries like Bulgaria, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, such classes are not binding.