Harimaguada Collective
Many of us are wondering if the new education law (LOMLOE) will finally bring Comprehensive Sexual Education to all schools in the Canary Islands. Many of us, speaking honestly, have serious doubts about it, because although it is true that the Ministry of Equality insists that sexual education will be shielded in schools, it is not detected that the Ministry and the Education Councils are taking steps to do so, in the organization and elaboration of the curricula.
1. The integration of Affective Sexual Education in the LOMLOE, in the Canary Islands.
On April 5, the Ministry of Education of the Government of the Canary Islands presented the draft of the LOMLOE education system, in which it has opted for the transversal integration of Affective Sexual Education in all stages and educational levels, as the LOGSE did in the 90s. Transversality was a bold proposal at that time, but it presented several problems when it came to implementing it in practice. The intra-area approach, not having a clearly defined school space and time, nor teachers responsible for it in the centers, nor training and support for teachers, nor textbooks, nor being subject to evaluation, etc., made this integration formula something almost ethereal. Consequently, the transversal axes -and especially Affective Sexual Education-, in practice, were specified in specific actions such as talks, workshops and commemorations, not ensuring their approach in all educational centers.
2. The LOMLOE, fifth education law in three decades.
The LOMLOE is the fifth education law that is approved after the repeal, in 1990, of the LGE of 1970. It should not surprise us, therefore, that the educational communities -and especially the teachers- already attend these processes indifferently, seeing how education laws change from the offices, without improving the real conditions of the teaching activity. Beyond the directions of the centers, few teachers read them and rarely their application changes the daily dynamics in the classrooms. Moreover, many teachers have dedicated hours to see how our innovative work fit into the law in force at that time, so that we would be allowed to continue doing it, and what to do so that the useless bureaucracy would not take away the time necessary to develop our educational task. Teachers are tired of the school being considered as the place where everything important should be addressed, while no one seems to listen to the needs that are repeatedly raised so that public education can fulfill its function, with quality, in all educational centers.
The LOMLOE has been generated with little debate and much haste, it does not enter into the changes that public education needs, remaining in an insufficient continuity reform. Nor does it seem that, on this occasion, it has been understood that it is not about incorporating more and more content into the curriculum (knowledge that society understands must be transmitted), but about dismantling the current disciplinary system, rigid and overloaded. Unfortunately, an outdated structure is maintained, where the subjects, which reach up to 12 in Compulsory Secondary Education -and their corresponding textbooks-, continue to be the organizers of the curriculum.
3. The curriculum we need.
A real educational change in our classrooms requires an integrated and globalized curriculum, which overcomes this fragmentation and bets on the integration of knowledge, which delimits what is essential in the educational process to achieve a full human development of the students, in a global and integral way, not in each subject. Wouldn't it be much more motivating for our children and adolescents to organize the curriculum around personal, relational and environmental care, as fundamental elements for the sustenance of life? Shouldn't we take as organizing axes of the educational process
Affective and Sexual Education, Environmental Education, Health Education, Intercultural Education, etc., and around these contents develop the instrumental learning of Language, Mathematics, History, Music, etc.? Wouldn't these learnings be much more meaningful, would be more functional and would serve not to study them for the exam, but to learn to think, to live and to coexist, in a society that respects human rights, equity, diversity, justice and the common good?
We need a curriculum that promotes an education that accompanies students so that they are able to define their biography, analyze and face the reality we live in, have skills for listening, dialogue, conflict resolution and consensus, as well as acquire an ethic based on solidarity, socio-environmental responsibility, respect and love; a measured, serene and reflective education, which allows respecting the uniqueness and rhythm of each person, and assimilate the acquired knowledge. But that approach has not been reflected by either the Spanish Ministry of Education or the Canary Islands Ministry of Education.
4. There is still time to ensure Comprehensive Affective Sexual Education in the Canary Islands.
Faced with a curriculum organized around disciplines, the LOMLOE has not resolved that the transversal integration of Affective Sexual Education (ASE) ensures its treatment. We fear that we will have more of the same. Sexual Education is allowed to be incorporated, but it is not guaranteed, thus ignoring the recommendations of multiple studies, research and Canarian, state and international organizations, and the mandate of UNESCO to incorporate quality Comprehensive Sexual Education in the educational system as a continuous and compulsory educational process.
To ensure this, it is essential that the EAS is included, explicitly, as compulsory content in the curricula of all areas/subjects of the different educational levels, thus transmitting the value we give to these contents and committing administrations, educational communities and, especially teachers, with the need to work it in a systematic and comprehensive way, in all educational stages. What is not named does not exist.
But, in addition, a reflection is essential to enrich the integration formula in the organization of the LOMLOE teachings in the Canary Islands. Starting from the current structure, we should assess the introduction of a compulsory subject/area in the different educational stages, which gives way to the inclusion of the quality of life, of affective, sexual and emotional co-education, framed in the field of self-care and personal, relational and environmental care. An area that is responsible for ensuring that its contents permeate the different subjects and the various spaces of formal education, as the complexity of the aspects that are addressed involves addressing them in a comprehensive way.
We must advance in the sociocultural transformation promoted by integral education, a field in which changes occur more slowly, but more solidly. But, for this, it is essential that this area/subject has sufficient hours, with adequate ratios, with a flexible school organization, with trained teachers and with time for coordination, reflection and collaborative work with other teachers and families, with advisory and support resources, with adequate materials, with support for the development of comprehensive and community experiences... Developing a curriculum is not just defining or writing it. Laws are important, but as has happened on other occasions, the LOMLOE will not change the educational model if the means are not put in place to make it a reality.
Learning in GOOD TREATMENT, in RESPECT, in CARE, in HUMANITY is needed. And in this learning, Affective and Sexual Education becomes an essential tool for the integral education of people and for social transformation. It is urgent to assume it as a RIGHT, a NEED We trust that a new opportunity will not be lost!
