RC Archbishop Jason Gordon has said as long as the Concordat stands, curricula on comprehensive sex education (CSE) cannot be introduced into denominational schools without the consent of the denomination.
Gordon made the statement during the Shepherd’s Corner programme on Trinity TV on Thursday, as part of a discussion in which he appealed to the government and parents to work together in partnership for the education system.
The Concordat, signed in 1960, is an agreement on the terms under which denominational boards would run assisted schools. It was signed by the RC Church, which had the largest number of denominational schools at the time, and the government.
Gordon said he had heard the US and the UN were pressuring Caricom to introduce comprehensive sex education, and that the government was going to face significant pressure from international agencies on the matter.
“As long as the Concordat stands, however, curricula cannot be introduced into our schools, because that’s one of the guarantees of the Concordat: that no book, text, or curriculum can be introduced into a denominational school without the consent of that denomination. So we might actually be very important for the government, who has been blocking this thing as it can locally.
"But when it starts to come with the international partners, it’s going to create a really difficult space.”
Gordon also called on people to stop believing rumours and creating mischief around the topic of education.
“Over the last two weeks there have been so many rumours, but every time I have checked one of them – about the different questionnaires, the books introduced – I can’t find any credible evidence that any of those rumours are true. In fact, the MoE put out something to say there is a lot of rumour and a lot of mischief going on and please don’t believe what you’re seeing on social media."
Gordon was referring to allegations being made through voice notes and WhatsApp statuses that consent forms for the TT National Learning Assessment were linked to medical procedures to be done on students.
The Ministry of Education said those allegations were completely false, and the claims flew in the face of common knowledge about the permissions medical institutions needed to do medical procedures on children.
Another rumour was that books featuring lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBT+) characters would be used in schools because they were being sold in local bookstores. The Education Minister said there had been no change to the booklist for the upcoming academic year and the books were not on the booklist.
Gordon said, “So if somebody has a book that was used inappropriately in a classroom, introduced in a classroom, or a questionnaire introduced to a child that was inappropriate, please send it in. But I can’t find any, and the Minister of Education has said no, this is not so.
"So let’s not get to the extreme of the mischief we’ve been seeing. We have enough real stuff we have to deal with together.”
In March 2022, a F
