Schools in New Zealand have been urged to use students’ preferred names, gender and pronouns in class and on their records in updated guidelines from the education ministry that are intended to emphasise inclusion and diversity.
The recommendations were rewritten to account for the ubiquity of social media and online pornography, human rights law and “shifting societal norms relating to sexuality and gender diversity”, the government said.
“The new guidelines will ensure that the teaching of relationships and sexuality education in our schools will no longer be left to chance,” said Tracey Martin, the associate education minister. The policies have been welcomed by advocates for LGBTQ youth, but decried by those who believe trans students should be barred from using bathrooms of their choice.
For the first time the guidelines – which had not been updated since 2002 – have been split into separate primary school (for students up to approximately 12 years old) and secondary school documents. Students should be taught to critically analyse their own relationships, the recommendations say.
Schools at all levels are “encouraged to question gender stereotypes and assumptions about sexuality, including gender norms, gender binaries, gender stereotypes and sex norms, for example, the assumption that sex characteristics at birth are always male or female”.
The documents add that students should be allowed to identify as they prefer and use the toilets and changing rooms that match their identity.
One in 10 New Zealand secondary school students identify as gender or sexually diverse, the guidelines say, but many are not “out” at school. Rainbow Youth, an LGBTQIA advocacy group, said that was why the new recommendations were needed.
“It’s important that … young people are able to see themselves reflected in what they’re learning at school,” said Pooja Submaranian, a spokesperson. She added that many rainbow students were bullied or feared discrimination at school and the policy was “long overdue”.
Both sets of guidelines also exhort schools to consider the effect of pornography on students’ ideas about relationships and sex.
According to 2018 research one in four New Zealand pupils had viewed pornography by the time they turned 12, and two-thirds before they were 17. Nearly three-quarters were not seeking out such material when they encountered it.
Each school is permitted to decide how it will teach health education in consultation with its community; it recommends consideration is given to students’ cultures.
But some advocates worried that not all pupils would receive the education recommended by the ministry because, they said, teaching of the guidelines had been patchy across the country to date.
“The guidelines alone won’t deliver the fundamental change we need,” said Jackie Edmond, the chief executive of Family Planning. “We’re going to need more from the ministry to support schools to deliver this work.”
Not all welcomed the update. Ani O’Brien, a spokesperson for Speak Up for Women, a group formed to oppose sex self-identification, accused the education ministry of an “attempt to appease the demands of gender ideology lobbyists”. It was referring to the recommendation that students should use the bathroom or changing room of their choice.
In January the education ministry introduced guidelines for New Zealand schools to teach students about the climate crisis, including an awareness of anxiety about global heating.
The issue of sex education has challenged governments around the world. Sex and relationships education has been made compulsory for schools in England, focusing on respect and diversity, although the curriculum does not make as many practical suggestions as the New Zealand policy.