Student representatives discussed the Life Skills Program initiative with Čmilyte-Nielsen: it is an inadequate proposal

“As for breaking up part of it, that proposal seems to go against the very idea of ​​the program itself.” Because the idea is to rely on science and data, and not do it as a matter of value,” V. Čmilytė-Nielsen said to Eltai on Monday after a meeting with representatives of the Lithuanian School Students’ Union (LMS).

She also noted that the students themselves support the existing program and see its meaning.

“For almost a decade it has been talked about that such a program is needed and they evaluate the current program very positively as the people for whom it is intended,” said the leader of the parliament.

Students: this is an inadequate and unconstructive suggestion
LMS vice-president Emil Mikulskis also criticized the opposition’s initiative after the meeting with the head of the Seimas and said that the proposal to transfer the part of sexuality to moral education lessons is unconstructive and inadequate.

“We appreciate that this is not a constructive proposal and it is an attempt to please both sides without bothering to explain. (…) This is not fair to students, because education should be based, in our opinion, also on the interests of students, who are the major part of the education system. We consider it inadequate”, E. Mikulskis told Elta.

He also points out that the much-controversial and opposition-focused sexuality education is only a small part of the Life Skills programme.

“Sexuality education, which everyone likes to emphasize, is one-tenth of the program. We are talking about 2 lessons in 5th and 7th grade, one in one year and one in the next. 6 and 8, this is an integrated content”, said E. Mikulskis.

According to the representative of the students, the disagreements between the politicians regarding the Life Skills program are not a constructive discussion, but rather a performance before the elections.

“It’s hard to even call it a discussion – it’s sloganeering in the run-up to the election to appear more consistent on these issues. There is not much normal discussion about the content of the program – taking an example when it is mentioned that there is no mother, child, father in the program. (…) This is because not all children in Lithuania live with their biological parents – how many of them live in foster families or with other relatives”, pointed out E. Mikulskis.

“It’s just taking certain statements and taking them completely out of context, forgetting to explain them,” noted the LMS vice president.

ELTA reminds that the opposition factions of the Seimas last week 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 the standards of LGBT ideology”.

Although the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports (MSESM) immediately announced that the document circulating in the social space has nothing to do with the actual content of the program, some municipal mayors expressed criticism and mistrust of the program.