The Christian Institute has called on educational publisher Pearson to “root out” trans activism from its textbooks.
Content produced by Pearson has been criticised for its “woke” content. In one of its revision guides, aimed at GCSE Spanish students, one of the tasks is to explain why they follow or admire someone. An example answer to the question is to write about someone who “fights” for “transgender rights”.
Pearson has defended its work on the grounds that the transgender content was an example “rather than required responses to learn or use”.
Reports have also suggested that exams increasingly use terms like “non-binary” and “bisexual”. One French GCSE exam is reported to have asked students to translate the phrase, “My younger sister is bisexual”.
John Denning, Head of Education at The Christian Institute told The Telegraph, “Pearson needs to take decisive action to root out this ideology, or schools will no longer be able to trust it either as an education publisher or as an exam board.
“Trans activism in schools has caused profound harm to young people, has substituted ideology for genuine education, has marginalised children who disagree and has led schools to breach their clear legal duties of impartiality.”
Pearson was also criticised by Helen Joyce, head of advocacy at Sex Matters, said Pearson’s “agenda could not be more obvious” as it presents “trans activism as virtuous to students”.
Teachers have also raised concerns, with one German teacher telling The Christian Institute she was “appalled by how woke” Pearson’s textbook is.
“The textbook has numerous examples of LGBT individuals, and almost a whole page is dedicated to non-binary pronouns in all four cases in German. I’ve never heard of any of them.”
While the teacher said there was no obligation to teach such content, she said it could still appear in exams.
“Some materials in the speaking exam featured LGBT content, and students had to engage with it, either by reading aloud a text about it or describing/commenting on a photo containing LGBT content. Pearson’s specification makes much of it," she said.
