The biggest shake-up to the primary school syllabus in more than two decades is on the way. It will overhaul the way most subjects are taught, even add new ones, but changes to one subject is proving the most controversial: sex education.
It will replace the Stay Safe programme first introduced in the 1980s and as soon as the Department of Education announced it was working on a new approach and opened up a period of public consultation, one subject emerged as the most contentious – mention of transgender identities.
Transgender issues are not on the new primary school curriculum – something that has angered those on one side of this polarising culture war, while reassuring those on the other.
Irish Times education editor Carl O’Brien explains why the curriculum is changing and how it became caught up in this most contentious debate.
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Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Suzanne Brennan.
