A Diversity, Equity and Inclusion trainer told UK teachers to adopt a ‘gender-free model’ of education during a session funded by the National Education Union.
In a leaked webinar called ‘Getting the language right for 2022’, Dr Elly Barnes, chief executive of Educate and Celebrate, was seen suggesting to teachers that ‘male’ and ‘female’ categories be removed from school application forms and that school uniforms should be gender-free.
Barnes also recommended that teachers phase out words like ‘boy’, ‘girl’, ‘Mr’, ‘Mrs’, and ‘mother’ and replace them with gender-neutral terms like ‘learner’, ‘teacher’, and ‘parent’.
In a statement given to The Telegraph, an anonymous attendee said that the session was ‘propaganda for trans activists’.
‘Teachers will take what this woman says as fact because the training was organised by the NEU (National Education Union) and they’re not going to question their union.’
The NEU has been criticised for using its members’ fees to fund the training session.
A spokesperson said: ‘An increasing number of teenagers are identifying as non-binary, and education needs to respond to this – but the NEU does not believe that schools can or should adopt gender-neutral language across the board.’
‘This training came from an external provider and was organised locally. The NEU will review its contents to ensure it is consistent with our policies.’
Much has been made of the fact that the Department for Education has in the past provided funding to Educate and Celebrate. However, the Department distanced itself from Dr Barnes’s ‘gender-free model’, stating: ‘Banning gendered terms in the classroom is inappropriate and completely unnecessary. It should not be happening in our classrooms.’
[Image: https://pixabay.com/photos/human-rights-equality-rainbow-lgbt-3805188/]