Some of those in power support the opposition’s proposal to remove sexuality topics from the Life Skills Program

Support for the initiative is expressed not only by the liberal Ričardas Jukna, who signed the project, but also by a conservative Audronius Ažubalis, who assures that there are more like-minded people in the ruling majority. At that time, the chairman of the Liberal faction Eugene Gentvilas reassures that the ruling coalition will definitely not collapse due to differing opinions on this topic.

R. Juška believes that this proposal of a mixed group of members of the Seimas will give parents of schoolchildren more freedom of choice.

“So that the parents themselves can decide and choose. To be (educated – ELTA) not by coercion, but by free choice”, commented the liberal on the reasons for supporting the Elta project.

Conservative Audronius Ažubalis also positively evaluates this proposal of the opposition.

“I welcome the initiative. (…) That it (sexuality education – ELTA) should be removed from mandatory subjects is a fact,” A. Ažubalis told Elta.

“I can’t support the original program, because it basically separates the family from the education of the child,” said the MP.

He also notes that the like-minded members of the Homeland Union-Lithuanian Christian Democrats (TS-LKD) there are more in the ranks of the faction.

“It is not two or three (colleagues of the faction – ELTA), but definitely more. People sometimes change their opinions, of course, but for today I would say that there are more than 10 of them”, said A. Ažubalis.

For his part, the elder of the Liberal Movement faction in the Seimas E. Gentvilas emphasizes that because the politicians of the ruling majority express support for the opposition project, there is no drama. However, he notes, the proposal of the opposition is incomprehensible to him.

“In my opinion, a problem is being constructed here – from gender, from the Istanbul Convention, from sex education, from the Life Skills Education Program. And at the same time, they are trying to work together with the Ministry of Education and all those in power,” said E. Gentvilas.

“The life skills program is a whole thing. (…) To take one part of sex education and pull it out, to create a program as a single thing, is unacceptable to me,” said the parliamentarian.

However, the elder of the Liberal Movement faction is not inclined to emphasize the difference of opinion on this issue.

“Will the coalition collapse now that someone has signed something?” This coalition will refuse. There are differences of opinion, which have long been declared in the coalition agreement. They are there, you can’t escape from them,” he said member of the parliament.

“Each of us has our own opinion, and we certainly do not consider things in the coalition according to the opposition’s whims,” ​​said E. Gentvilas, emphasizing that the group never discussed a unanimous opinion on the issue of the Life Skills Program.

ELTA reminds that the opposition factions of the Seimas have registered a project proposing to delete the part of sexuality education from the Life Skills program. This initiative aims to integrate sexuality education into moral education, and parents can choose whether their children study according to religious lessons or according to a curriculum adapted to ethics lessons.

The initiative proposes to enshrine in the Education Law the norm that the social and emotional competence development component related to the education of the student’s sexuality is integrated into the moral education (religion and ethics) programs. It is noted that when parents choose moral education (ethics or religion) according to their beliefs, they should also choose sexuality education that corresponds to their beliefs.

Recently, there has been a lot of discussion regarding the life skills lesson that has appeared in the 5th, 7th and 9th grades since September. At the beginning of September, a fake document started to be shared on social networks, which stated that the new life skills lesson will teach students about sexuality “according to LGBT ideology standards”.

Although Ministry of Education, Science and Sports (ŠMSM) immediately reported that the document spreading in the social space has nothing to do with the actual content of the program, some municipal mayors expressed criticism and distrust of the program that started.