Institute asks Ministry to restore "gender" in school health curriculum; Ministry says changes are final

The Institute for Gender Studies at the Faculty of Philology has asked that the term "gender" be reinstated into the revised curriculum for what was formerly called comprehensive sexual education, after the subject was retitled "Health and Protection of Health." The institute says removing the word leaves gaps in how schools address gender equality, stereotypes and gender-based violence.

Associate Professor Dr. Stefan Vasev, sociologist at the Faculty of Philology in Skopje, warned that omitting the concept risks confusing secondary-school students about important social categories. "There should be no discussion. It should be part, because we could head towards wrongly teaching young people, that is high school pupils. Because we know exactly what gender stereotypes are, what gender prejudices are, what gender discrimination is. And now you are supposed to direct those aspects, to study discrimination, stereotypes, prejudices, while leaving as an individual, i.e. subjective criterion what is discrimination, stereotype, prejudice, etc.," he said.

NGO HERA says children's safety is at stake

The women’s rights organisation HERA also sharply criticized the changes, arguing that any watering down of scientific terms and prevention content undermines child protection. "When scientific concepts are removed from education and prevention content is weakened, children do not become better protected. On the contrary, they are deprived of the opportunity to learn in time how to recognize violence, set personal boundaries, protect themselves from unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, and seek help when they need it. Children have the right to knowledge, not to a censored reality. They have the right to protection, not to silence about the risks they face. The state has an obligation to prepare young people for life, not to adapt science to someone's ideological beliefs," HERA said in a statement.

The Ministry of Education and Science (MES) responded that the amendments are final and were shaped after analysis of public and expert opinion, including remarks from representatives of the Chamber of Psychologists. "Integrated are the comments that were most frequently repeated by different subjects who pointed them out, but the essence of the subject remains the same — educating young people to protect personal health, and teachers are trained on how best to help students in this by transmitting knowledge. No additional revision of the programme is foreseen," the ministry wrote.

According to the Bureau for Development of Education, the revised curriculum now titled "Health and Protection of Health" removes the terms "sexual education," "gender" and "sexual rights" from topic and unit titles. The topic "Gender and Gender Equality" has been renamed simply "Equality," and the lesson that previously covered gender equality, gender stereotypes, discrimination and sexism has been replaced with a lesson on stereotypes, prejudices and discrimination.

Experts who follow school curricula say the shift raises questions about whether teachers will still cover the specific social dynamics that the term "gender" is meant to capture, and whether existing sociology classes that include gender concepts are sufficient to fill the gap in health education.

Photo: press material from the event