Premier Doug Ford is scrapping former Premier Kathleen Wynne’s purposed 2015 sex education update. Ford will revert sex-ed curriculum to one that was last updated in 1998.
Some of the major changes that the PCs disagreed with were having grade one students taught the proper names for body parts, grade two students being taught about puberty and grade three & four students learning about same-sex relationships. They were also against grade eight students being taught about the gender spectrum.
The curriculum will remain in effect until the PCs can consult with parents on how to modernize the material. Daryl Kramp, the M.P.P. for Prince Edward-Hastings, says that he agrees that parents need to be better consulted.
Kramp says the problem with the 2015 update was that not enough people, especially parents, were consulted. He adds that he doesn’t think that an update will be a quick or easy solution. He says that input will be needed from many different sources to properly update the curriculum.
Kramp adds that kids today are more aware than ever before. Even with that in mind, he says, it’s important that they learn about certain things at an appropriate time.
The reverted sex-ed curriculum will be put in place starting in the Fall. The PCs have not set a date when consulting would begin for the new curriculum.