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- Ελληνικά
The Minister of Education, Sports and Youth, Ms Athena Michaelidou, participated today in a meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights and Equal Opportunities between Men and Women, which discussed the right of children to sexual education.
At the end of the session, the Minister in a statement to reporters said: "We have been asked today to inform the House in general about the issue of sexual education, that is, the modules of the "Health Education" course taught in schools. We informed and reminded that the subject has been taught since 2012 in pre-primary and primary education, as well as in high school with some modules in the subject "Health Education".
Since September this year, by decision of the Parliament, it has been introduced in high schools and technical schools with a specific curriculum. Let us say that the course is aimed at protecting our children from sexual abuse, breaking the silence, hygiene and protecting themselves. Also, the modules of the course include issues of mutual respect, gender equality, dialogue and getting to know their bodies.
I should also mention that this year in particular, we paid special attention to the issues of training not only the management team and teachers, but also parents and the children themselves through workshops held in schools, as well as through lectures. Also, since last year we have made public and posted on the Ministry's website all the material relating to this course and the accompanying material so that parents do not have to worry, they can access it, they can be informed, and where there are questions we have provided specific email addresses for them to submit their questions.
In the past year to date we have not encountered any particular problems or complaints from parents or students about this course, which I clarify is taught by the teachers themselves, the kindergarten teacher, the teacher, the Home Economics/Life Education teacher.
This year the course is being evaluated and the evaluation so far is very positive.
This year the course is being evaluated and the evaluation so far is very positive. The messages we have received from teachers, parents and students are very encouraging, that the course is useful and that it helps them very much in their all-round education.
I should also mention that the suggestions we are getting are for more material needed, for better supervision, which is needed by the inspectors. It is on these axes that we are now concentrating our efforts. But the best evaluation for us is the data itself. It can be seen through the incidents reported to the police and the Children's Home that children are breaking their silence. Children and parents report incidents of sexual abuse to the police, which unfortunately occur mainly at home, in the family and in the social environment, and this is where we must pay particular attention.
For us, these incidents and the data sound the alarm and inform us that, yes the protocols work, yes the procedures work, but then there is a very serious issue of how we deal with them more broadly as different agencies and different ministries.
In closing, to say that the challenges are still great, we continue to work with all agencies to provide the right information to our children and our teachers. Our goal is a safe school. Our goal is to train everyone so that they know at all times how to behave if such incidents are reported in school and in the classroom. We are increasing the monitoring and supervision of classes by inspectors so that we can better assist and we are also continuing to monitor police data so that we can intervene in reported cases or in cases where we observe that procedures are not being followed properly," the Education Minister concluded.
Ms. Michaelidou then answered questions from reporters.
Asked about an incident, which she herself witnessed, at a kindergarten and what exactly happened, the Education Minister noted: "In one of the classes I attended some years ago in a kindergarten - because I just wanted to see how the lesson was conducted - while the kindergarten teacher was talking about what the child should pay attention to, a small child, 5 years old, mentioned: "Yes ma'am, this has happened to me" and started talking spontaneously, because she felt comfortable. So immediately the kindergarten teacher, who knew the protocols very well, took the child to her safely to a place where they were alone, they talked, and of course it's one of the cases that went the way of justice."
Asked how she felt when she heard this, Ms. Michaelidou said: "We were all shocked...Too bad. I am also a mother, my concern first and foremost is my children. I couldn't imagine that such a fragile creature has gone through what she went through. It has also helped me tremendously in my fight to give these children a voice. If our concern is the children, we need to give them a voice. We should give them the right information so that they can respond."
Asked if the perpetrator was from the child's family background, the minister replied in the affirmative, saying he was from his very close family environment.
Asked about the letters she receives from parents who want to ban their children from attending the sex education course, the Minister said that the number of parents who have sent such letters is very small.
Asked if she is aware of any cases of parents who ban their children from attending this course, Ms. Michaelidou noted: "We have been very clear from the beginning and said that there is no such issue. It is a lesson like all the lessons in the curriculum. It is a subject that is perhaps more sensitive, but the subject of history and religious studies can also be considered sensitive tomorrow, and each parent or each child cannot decide on his or her own which subject he or she wants to be excluded from. This is very dangerous. We believe that it is a compulsory subject for our children and even a very helpful one, as the evidence shows," the Minister of Education concluded.
(IP/MS)
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