Peru: Conservative groups will be able to oversee school textbooks with a gender focus
Student and feminist organizations point out that it is "dangerous" for educational content to be determined by religious and moral criteria.
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LIMA, Peru. On May 6, the Congress of the Republic of Peru approved Bill No. 904 entitled “Law that promotes the quality of educational materials and resources in Peru.”
The law allows conservative groups to influence school textbooks that contain references to gender equality and comprehensive sex education. This educational material is distributed in state schools.
In this way, parents will be required to participate in shaping the content of the materials. They will have to be consulted, even though they lack expertise in the subject. This measure weakens the leading role of the Ministry of Education, which defines and implements the gender perspective and Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) in schools without ideological bias and based on evidence.
Sabrina Rodríguez, spokesperson for the Maternal Struggle Front, told Agencia Presentes that “Bill 904 provides benefits to conservative parent groups, allowing them to persecute and punish specialists who develop educational materials with a gender equality focus. Furthermore, it undermines equal education for children and adolescents by denying them access to tools for identifying and responding to situations of violence.”
“To undermine Comprehensive Sexuality Education is to violate the right to timely information.”
Ninety-one votes were cast in favor of this bill, spearheaded by evangelical congressman Esdras Medina. Medina was a spokesperson for “Don’t Mess With My Children,” the anti-rights campaign that has been trying since 2017 to remove the gender perspective from the educational curriculum.
First they held marches, then a popular action in the Judiciary. They lost there, but now they're delivering the final blow in Congress, thanks to the convergence of conservative right-wing sectors, which constitute the majority. This includes the ruling party, which is fundamentalist on these issues.
Congresswoman Flor Pablo, former Minister of Education, pointed out the risks this law poses to education. “This is very dangerous because educational materials are based on state policies and cannot, under any circumstances, be based on religious or moral criteria. Therefore, giving parent organizations the power to validate educational materials is unacceptable.”
Rodríguez also stated that “attacking Comprehensive Sexual Education is to violate the right to timely information appropriate to the developmental age of children.
From a punitive adult-centric perspective, restrictions are imposed, while remaining indifferent to the real problems of forced child pregnancies, as well as the constant cases of sexual abuse of children.”
Various feminist and student organizations have protested against the approval of this law, demanding that President Pedro Castillo review it, through sit-ins and marches (the next one will be on Saturday, May 13th nationwide).
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