Call for LGBTI pupils’ list ‘an abomination’
Education department distances itself from request
The department of education has come under fire and subsequently distanced itself from a request for schools across the province to submit a list of their LGBTI pupils to develop a database for its Special Programmes Unit.
The request was brought to light last week by DA provincial education spokesperson Edmund van Vuuren after he was forwarded e-mail correspondence from a Makhanda (Grahamstown) principal.
The principal is one of 20 who had been instructed on Tuesday by Sarah Baartman district circuit management cluster Tamara Ndziweni to submit the names of all lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex pupils – by the close of business that day.
The e-mail, which The Herald has seen, claims that the data is for a workshop to raise awareness of LGBTI rights, being held on October 30 at the Mpekweni Beach Hotel Resort.
It says that only 10 pupils will be selected to attend, while the rest will be added to a database.
The news was met with hostility by principals, the SA Human Rights Commission, a political party and education experts who decried it as being irregular, irresponsible and unconstitutional.
SA Human Rights Commissioner Andre Gaum said while every pupil was free to determine their gender identity and sexual orientation, the circumstances under which this was done had to be their choice.
“The right to privacy and dignity therefore includes the right of any person to decide if, when and to whom they disclose their sexual orientation and gender identity.
“The department of basic education and all schools have a responsibility to respect the rights of learners and to act in their best interest.
“If, or when, it is determined that a prima facie violation has taken place, the commission shall intervene in a manner it determines to be the most appropriate way to protect and promote the realisation of rights,” Gaum said.
In a letter to the department on Wednesday, Van Vuuren wrote: “The identification of learners belonging to the LGBTI is discriminatory, unconstitutional and may lead to verbal, mental and even physical abuse against this group.
“The DA hereby requests the special unit within the department of education to withdraw [its] human rights-infringed invitation and to replace it with an invite to the learner representative councils of schools.”
On Thursday, a day after the response by Van Vuuren, Ndziweni sent another email to principals, saying: “The [Special Programmes Unit] head office has since decided to not involve learners for this workshop due to exams.
“LSAs [learner support agents] have been identified to be part of the workshop instead.”
However, education department spokesperson Malibongwe Mtima vehemently discredited the e-mail pertaining to the LGBTI database, claiming the unit had not sanctioned any such communication.
“The department requested information from districts and schools to ensure uniformity and to enable head office to have a credible database for learners with disabilities.
“There is no activity of instruction to district co-ordinators to create a database for the LGBTI group. The only activity that talks to the LGBTI group is the awareness workshop scheduled for October 30.
“The department therefore distances itself from this e-mail.
“The department has thus started an internal investigation and is working to get the source of this e-mail which distorted the activities.”
Educational psychologist Gerhard Goosen described the request as an abomination that would have severe consequences for those labelled as LGBTI.
“It would have a significantly negative effect [on] the pupils who are identified and could possibly invoke an aggressive reaction by their peers in light of the situation of corrective rape we experience in this country,” Goosen said.
“At that age children might not have accepted their sexual orientation or even know what it is. To ask them to reveal it to the department is absolutely ridiculous.
“And frankly it is none of the department’s business, and is a very ill-considered idea.”
Education expert Professor Susan van Rensburg said the exercise would be extremely discriminatory if it were to proceed, and would lead to victimisation of the pupils.
“There is a big difference between gender and sexuality.
“Gender is the only thing the department needs to know, but your sexual orientation, that is your secret which is protected by the constitution.”
A Makhanda principal, who asked not be named, said: “It is absolutely absurd to think that we would label the pupils.
“It would require us to go to classes individually and ask children to put up their hands to be identified – just on that basis one can see the request cannot be allowed.”
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