Department for Education clarifies gay rights ‘nonsense’ tweet
By Sam Rigby
The Department for Education has clarified its view on gay rights being taught in schools.
The department came under fire on Sunday (November 2) after tweeting that it is “nonsense” to force all schools to teach gay rights – read more here.
The original tweet read: “Nonsense to say schools ‘must teach gay rights’. We want schools to teach broad curric based on British values.”
However, the account later deleted the tweet and made it clear in a series of tweets that it was arguing that it is “complete nonsense to say that schools are being forced to teach gay rights against their will”.
The comments follow comments made by Education Secretary, Nicky Morgan, in The Sunday Times, saying that schools “should encourage pupils to respect other people even if they do not agree with them”.
Read the Department for Education’s tweets in full below:
Clarification @thesundaytimes: It is complete nonsense to say that schools are being forced to ‘teach gay rights’ against their will. (1/5)
— DfE (@educationgovuk) November 2, 2014
Ofsted are rightly ensuring that schools do not indoctrinate pupils about gay people – or any other people – being inferior. (2/5)
— DfE (@educationgovuk) November 2, 2014
The same goes for schools that do things like make girls sit separately at the back of the class. (3/5)
— DfE (@educationgovuk) November 2, 2014
Both are practices which go directly against the fundamental British values of tolerance and respect. (4/5)
— DfE (@educationgovuk) November 2, 2014
We believe schools should prepare all pupils for life in modern Britain. A broad and balanced curriculum is vital for this (5/5)
— DfE (@educationgovuk) November 2, 2014
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