The latest public opinion poll conducted by the Parsifal agency clearly shows that the vast majority of people think that LGBT topics do not belong in schools and kindergartens, but what is problematic is the fact that the government, according to Mojca Škrinjar, “does not really care about people’s opinion, which means that more needs to be done to make sure that LGBT content does not appear in the curriculum.”
“Given the kind of government we have, it has absolutely no regard for people’s opinion, but wokrs in line with some of its own so-called ideological delusions, and it is to be expected that they will impose this on others, too,” worries Mojca Škrinjar, who has been involved in the education system for years and knows the field well.
Parsifal’s survey found that the vast majority of respondents (69.2 percent) believe that LGBT issues do not belong in schools and kindergartens. A smaller proportion of respondents (20.1 percent) agree with the inclusion of LGBT topics in the education system, while 10.8 percent have no opinion on the topic or cannot decide.
In Slovenia, the rise of a left-wing government to power, which promotes harmful left-wing ideologies, including LGBT ideology, has given rise to a number of reasons why parents are (rightly) concerned about the education of their children in kindergartens and schools. Namely, we recently reported on a case from Vavta vas, where a parent of a child expressed concern over an event called the Living Library, where gay activists were supposedly promoting LGBT ideology to children.
Janković “forced” the headmasters to do this
We also asked Mojca Škrinjar for a statement, who expressed concern that the government would try to force LGBT content into schools and kindergartens despite people’s disapproval. “Our government is not living on realistic ground in any respect and is not even aware that people reject the LGBT agenda,” she said, pointing out that the Ljubljana Mayor, Zoran Janković, is also “forcing” this ideology into kindergartens. “He literally forced the headmasters to put the LGBT sign in kindergartens,” said Škrinjar, who believes that the headmasters agreed to this out of fear and pressure. “It’s just the nature of a mandate job – either they will no longer be appointed as head teachers or all investment funding will be cut off, and that’s the way I think things are in Ljubljana,” she said.
She explained that it is technically possible to introduce LGBT content into the curriculum and that teachers can still not actually teach this, but that there is a problem if an inspection comes in and then the principal is objectively blamed again. “The frog is slowly boiling, and they will really enforce this quietly by coercion,” she warned.
Who can prevent this?
Škrinjar says that only parents have the power to prevent it. She explained that they should react en masse, especially in the Parents’ Council at the national level, “they should demand that this is not included in the curriculum, because once it is in the curriculum, then, of course, even the Parents’ Council in the schools themselves can do nothing, no […] then they are completely powerless.”
The Minister must also listen to parents
She reiterated that only a massive resistance from parents could put pressure on the curriculum drafters and the Minister, who, she said, plays a key role in approving the curricula. If the Minister does not publish them, they do not enter into force, which gives him significant influence over their content. She explained that, although the curriculum is supposed to be independent in content, the Minister has the possibility to take into account the wishes of parents and communicate them to the compilers. He should therefore listen to parents, as he is not only responsible to teachers, but also to them.
Methodology
The survey covered 717 respondents, 50.3 percent of whom were women. The average age of the respondents is 51.9 years, with a standard deviation of 16.6. The oldest age group has the highest number of respondents (43.4 percent), the middle age group is slightly less represented (36.5 percent), and the youngest age group has the lowest number of respondents (20.1 percent). The highest proportion of respondents have completed secondary school (35.0 percent), followed by those with a higher education degree or more (30.7 percent), 23.8 percent have a vocational education degree, and 10.4 percent have completed or incomplete primary school education.
Tanja Brkić
