Kicking the can down the road

Avoidance tactics 101

Those whose votes were influenced last year by the promise from Erica Stanford to “deal with the RSE curriculum” must be feeling very let down that the Minister of Education has instead ‘kicked the can down the road’.  

Expectations of a quick removal from schools of the ideologically driven Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE) Guide have been dashed by Stanford commissioning a survey into RSE from the Education Review Office (ERO) that will delay any action by several months.

ERO has set up a low-quality online survey that is being undertaken this month in about 400 selected schools, with parents and students being asked very generalised questions. In-person interviews will be carried out in only a handful of schools.

Survey snags

Problems with the reliability of this survey are glaring:

• There is an assumption that everyone believes there is such a thing as “gender identity” and that children need to learn about it.

• “Gender identity” is not defined so there is no way to know what concept the respondents have based their answers on.

• The survey categorises children according to a self-declared “gender”, meaning reporting on any insights according to student sex will be impossible.

• The standardised list of topics taught in RSE is almost worthless because different schools will cover them in different ways. One school’s interpretation of “identity” or “acceptance and diversity” will not be the same as another’s.

• Topic questions have been translated into easier language for the children’s survey but there is no way of checking that they understand the concepts they are being asked about.

• It seems that teachers have not been included in this consultation – is this ERO making another assumption, that teachers all support the current RSE content? 

• The survey is anonymous and open to anyone with the link, whether a parent or not. How will ERO filter out invalid responses?  

Goldilocks answers

The design and application of this survey make it impossible for it to provide the information the Minister has sought. ERO was asked to find out “how RSE is currently taught and how well it meets the needs of students, expectations of parents and capability of schools”. *

A few confusing, multi-choice questions about RSE content will not reveal how well it meets the needs of students, nor uncover the expectations of parents.

To discover how RSE is currently taught, the selected schools would need to supply their lesson plans, including the worksheets, videos, and discussion points they cover. Without that information, parental ‘Goldilocks’ responses of “just right, too much, or too little” to the topics questions are meaningless because they cannot be matched to actual lesson content.

As is often the case whenever parents are consulted about RSE, this survey is sparse on specific details about lesson content. Most parents are in favour of children learning about pubertal changes in health lessons, but that quickly evaporates when they discover that some schools are teaching as fact that girls can have a penis and boys a vulva. If the essential information of exactly what is being taught is not provided to parents, any positive response to topic questions is unreliable. 

Many survey questions provide no space for elaboration. The questions about community consultation do not allow room to detail the inadequacy of the vague ‘tick box’ exercise that is carried out by a lot of schools. Parents can answer “yes, but not as it is now” to Q13 but no box is provided to explain what they would prefer.  

Further questions remain:

• How were the participating schools selected?

• How will ERO ensure the inclusion of views from parents who don’t have computer access?

• What will happen to survey responses from parents at schools other than the selected ones?

• And most important of all, how much weight will be placed on this insecure and ineffective survey?

Despite the problems, RGE strongly encourages you to respond to the survey, if given the opportunity.

As the online survey does not provide enough room to explain your answers, we recommend that you provide a written response, together with examples of inappropriate content that concerns you, and take it in person to the principal.

*RGE thanks Rodney Hide for sending an OIA to Erica Stanford that uncovered the background to this survey and revealed that another document - Update on relationships and sexuality education in schooling (1320961) - was provided to the Minister on 25 January. This document has been withheld by the Minister on the grounds that the advice is under active consideration.

Circular referencing

Some sort of change in RSE is underway as part of a full review of the health curriculum that is due to be trialled in schools by Term 4 2025.

But the review is all happening out of public sight. Minister Stanford did not publicly announce the ERO survey and has withheld the ministerial advice she received in January. Once again, decisions will be made about RSE content with little parental input, a reliance on low-quality surveys, and the likelihood of more “circular referencing”.

Circular referencing is the practice, identified by Dr Hilary Cass, whereby guidelines for the treatment of gender dysphoria are purported to be based on the best evidence available but rely on cross-referencing where one non-evidence-based guideline is used to justify another non-evidence-based guideline’s recommendation.

In NZ education, circular referencing happens when university academics who are committed to gender ideology carry out questionable research that is referenced by other academics with the same beliefs, which then bolsters their credentials and enables them to win contracts to write teaching materials as self-proclaimed ‘experts’ in the field. The current RSE Guide was written by academics from NZ and Australian universities who all adhere to the unscientific beliefs of gender ideology, and no parent or gender critical group was consulted.  

This time around, Minister Stanford has met with a representative from InsideOUT on March 26, but as far as we know has not consulted with any groups that oppose the imposition of gender ideology in schools.

Is Minister Stanford intending that this poor quality ERO survey be the only opportunity for parental consultation on RSE?