The Secretary of State for Education, João Costa, clarified this Tuesday afternoon the case of two students from Famalicão whose father does not allow them to attend Citizenship and Development classes and who are at risk of being held for two years despite their good performance in other subjects.
The father, Artur Mesquita Guimarães, filed a precautionary measure – which the Secretary of State confirmed having been accepted – and another action in which he defends the right not to allow his children to attend that discipline, arguing that it is an intrusion of the State in education of children.
The two students, aged 12 and 15, born in Famalicão, attend the Camilo Castelo Branco School Group, which MINHO contacted, but did not want to provide clarification.
Questioned by Deputy Duarte Marques, the Secretary of State for Education refuted what he considers to be “pseudo-news”, recalling that “the Citizenship and Development component is mandatory, being no different from Mathematics, History or Physical Education” .
“The position that comes to us from the school is that the guardian refuses students to participate” in this discipline, stresses the government official.
The Class Council decided to allow the two students to transition from year to year, even though they did not attend Citizenship and Development classes. Which, João Costa observed, “is illegal”.
“It is one thing for me to be able to pass with the prospect of recovery, another is to be without discipline,” justifies the Secretary of State, adding that this premise “applies both to Citizenship and Development and to Physical Chemistry”.
The Secretary of State also reveals that “recovery plans” and “supplementary work” were presented, but there was always “refusal to participate” by the parent.
João Costa says that the case is covered by “some lies and some omissions”, taking the opportunity to deny that he issued “dispatch to order to fail” the two brothers. “Is not true. There is an instruction for restoring legality ”, he stresses.
“When a student does not attend a course, it cannot be approved, but recovery plans can be approved that would not impede the students’ progress. But the parents refused, or at least the father “, points out the government official, assuring that the” school presented all the instruments and triggered the various normal procedures “to resolve the situation.
The case gained media coverage when shared on Twitter by the Famalicense MEP Nuno Melo, in which he wrote that “2 students average 5, Honor board and Knowledge Olympics winners fail and go back 2 years because they do not attend ‘Sexuality, Gender and Interculturality’ classes”.
When most of the subjects are negative, 2 students average 5, Honor board and winners of Knowledge Olympics fail and go back 2 years because they do not attend “Sexuality, Gender and Interculturality” classes and why is it not news in any national newspaper?
— Nuno Melo (@NunoMeloCDS) July 18, 2020
At the parliamentary hearing, João Costa recalled that the discipline is called Citizenship and Development and has other components such as Financial Literacy or Environmental Education.
“The problem, I imagine that is not with financial literacy, seems that the problem of whoever raises these questions is a problem of sex, gender and coexistence with other cultures”, said the minister.
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