d require to teach something about which there is neither a scientific nor social consensus to highly impressionable young.
A row has emerged between Irish Prime Minister, Leo Varadkar, and the Irish Catholic Primary Schools Management Association (CPSMA), which has an oversight role in 89 per cent of the primary schools in Ireland.
In a letter to Irish government children’s and education ministers, the schools association challenged views expressed by the minister for children in Ireland, Roderic O’Gorman, that children in primary school should be taught about “what it means to be transgender”.
In a strongly worded letter sent in January, seen by the Irish Independent, the Association argued that teaching primary school children “what it means to be transgender would require to teach something about which there is neither a scientific nor social consensus to highly impressionable young children”.
The group claims it would be “counterproductive, generating unnecessary divisions in school communities where none now exist,” and “more seriously, it might add to a growing psychological contagion amongst young and vulnerable children”.
“We believe a more prudent and sensible policy is to teach children to respect every human being and to allow children to be children.”
The CPSMA argued that there “is no scientific consensus on the cause [or causes] of gender dysphoria and there is currently an intense international debate on the appropriate treatment of children with gender dysphoria. For example, the affirmative care model has recently been rejected in Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands and the UK.
“Secondly, there is mounting evidence of psychological contagion. In the UK the numbers of children referred to the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) rose from 50 a year in 2009 to 25,000 in 2020.”
“Significantly, this increase in referrals was accompanied by a change in the case-mix from predominantly birth-registered males with gender incongruence from an early age, to predominantly birth-registered females presenting with later onset of reported gender incongruence in early teen years.
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