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It is one of the controversies of the moment. Some 100 public figures, including the former President of the Republic Cavaco Silva, former Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho and the Cardinal Patriarch of Lisbon, Manuel Clemente, signed a manifesto against the mandatory discipline of Education for Citizenship. and Development (DPI) in schools, considering that parents should have the right to “conscientious objection”. Basically, they want the chair to be optional, like the old religion and morals.
“This is not a group of reactionaries, but people who defend pluralism, against the ideological totalitarianism of the sensible and moral”, defended DN the professor and former rector of the Catholic University, Manuel Braga da Cruz, mentor of the petition – together with Mário Pinto, who was a deputy to the 1975 Constituent Assembly.
The idea is not to “fracture itself” or “defend ideologies”, but rather to “draw the attention of public opinion and government officials” to two fundamental things. First, that the primacy of moral education belongs to the parents and not to the state. I don’t know what the state is doing in sex education. It is a matter in which the State is not competent and cannot, according to Article 43 of the Constitution, to guide teaching by any ideology or philosophical, aesthetic, political or religious guideline. Secondly, that the Fundamental Law of the educational system expressly recognizes the right to conscience for this matter. This right was deprived of the parents, “said Manuel Braga da Cruz.
The discipline of Citizenship and Development has existed since 2018-19 and addresses issues such as human rights, gender equality, interculturality, citizen participation, environmental education and sexuality. So the first question that arises is why are these personalities opposed to a discipline that is supposed to teach children to be better citizens? “I wish it were so. None of the signatories is against a discipline of education for citizenship. What we oppose is totalitarianism in education. There is widespread discontent and indignation with Education for Citizenship and Development, ”the university professor assured DN.
Led by absences gave rise to the case
The petition follows the case of the two Famalicão students, who failed due to lack of discipline – as the family opposed their participation in the classes and the Ministry of Education understood that, since discipline is mandatory and not optional, there was no way to exempt students from attending.
“The parents considered that education in sex and gender, which are not really subjects of education for citizenship, are of great moral and even religious sensitivity and, having knowledge of the subject, they did not want their children to attend these classes. of that option the children failed, ”Braga da Cruz told DN.
Something “unacceptable” for the signatories of the document. “The Fundamental Law of the educational system, which is, after the Portuguese Constitution, the structuring document of all our legislation, expressly says that civic and moral education must be carried out in freedom of conscience. That is, it admits that it may be a conscientious objection, is what the parents of the two young men from Famalicão did. The school accepted the argument and gave a new year to the students, who by the way are honor roll students and even represent the school in the school Olympics. But after a year and so, the Secretary of State reversed the school’s decision and decided to fail the students, forcing them and serving two years of missing citizenship classes. At a time when no one fails and even the Prime Minister says that it makes no sense to retain anyone, there is a decision, which for me is a clear punishment, to push back two students in two years ”, defended Braga da Cruz.
The 12- and 14-year-old students from the Camilo Castelo Branco School Group, in Famalicão, could not pass to the 7th and 9th year and were forced to repeat two years of schooling. The tutors of the two students were also proposed to attend a discipline recovery plan, but the parents refused and later appealed to the court, which accepted the precautionary measure against the decision of the Ministry of Education and thus prevented the students from repeating the two years.. This at least for now. Since the provisional measure is an interim decision, it can be reversed. In the Administrative and Tax Court of Braga two cases are being carried out that question the position of the Ministry of Education, but if the court decides in favor of the government, students will have to repeat their years of schooling.
It was “this that made all the bells ring.” Driven by “freedom of education, freedom of conscience, which has been defended for centuries, and pluralism”, in 15 days the professor and former deputy Mário Pinto got in touch with some 100 personalities and produced a document, which He even raised the interest of the President of the Republic, as they say. The document now goes to the prime minister’s office and to the parliamentary banks.
In addition to Cavaco Silva, Pedro Passos Coelho and the Cardinal Patriarch of Lisbon D. Manuel Clemente, also the former ministers Manuela Ferreira Leite, Bagão Félix and Rui Machete, vice president of PSD, David Justino, former presidents of CDS Adriano Moreira and Ribeiro e Castro , the former attorney general Souto Moura, the historian António Araújo (advisor to Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa) and the PS deputy Sérgio Sousa Pinto sign the document.
For the teacher “it is a pity and even absurd” that many think that public school serves to remove children from families for a few hours a day and refers to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which clearly specifies that it is the right of parents choose the type of education to give their children. “Impose a gender ideology on all children, on top of which there are schools that make agreements with LGBT associations to deliver part of the material to children. This is something to shout to the heavens ”, justified.
The Government defends the decision taken and against “citizenship being the option of each one”
The Undersecretary of State for Education, João Costa, defends the Government’s decision and guarantees that “there are recitals in the manifesto that are based on false information and that have already been publicly denied.
To the government official, what’s going on It is a “political manifesto”, which arises from “a desire that, in life in society, citizenship is an option of each one and not a commitment to respect the rights of all, of course in intentions”.
“Against an education self service“
For Carlos Alves, from the Political Observatory, the discipline “is relevant” and “beneficial” and “being optional does not solve all the problems inherent to it, that is, the fact of being present in the educational system of a secular state, to pay with the taxes of the citizens. ” And without forgetting the theme of classifications, which came to foster “a hierarchy of disciplines.”
For this political scientist, it is still weird that a student on the honor roll ends up failing a citizenship discipline and not Portuguese or math, but the theme is “a fabric that gives many meters”.
“Simplify”, in the teacher’s opinion, the integral education of the citizen should be a priority: “Conscientious objection is legitimate under the rule of law, but the issue goes much further and has to do with individual rights and collective rights. And it can be dangerous to use jurisprudence as jurisprudence [como o de Famalicão] on an issue that refers to the question of the presence of the state in our lives, whether we want a strong or weak state presence, and that is ideological, whether we like it or not.. “
The question of compulsory discipline is, therefore, “a false question” for this specialist and “does not exhaust the subject.” “We can affirm that the penalty for students is excessive for someone who allegedly makes this conscientious objection., but it cannot and should not give a pejorative sense to the obligation, since it is to absolutely eliminate the possibility of choice and even a sign of indoctrination of some sectors of society ”, he considered, realizing that there are people who see this as “A certain promiscuity of state interference in their lives.”
For Carlos Alves, better citizens make stronger democracies. “The practice of citizenship is a participatory, individual and collective process, which requires selection and action on the problems experienced by each one and by society. I confess that none of that impacts me, it is dialogue, it is discussion, it is critical thinking. All of this taken constructively leads to greater citizen participation and greater citizen participation leads to stronger and healthier democracies, as demonstrated by the Nordic democracies.“he told DN.
Alves agrees with the right to conscientious objection and even defends it on the issue of compulsory military service, for example, but it is against “an education self service“. And it is necessary to know that “forming citizens is different from forming citizens.” “I don’t even agree with the list of Portuguese books that forgets contemporary Portuguese literature, which is brilliant, and insists on the Camillian lyric, but education cannot be left at the mercy of to bite and arbitrariness, that’s counterproductive“He defended himself.
“If we are going to question the role of the state, then we can also question its competence to make menus for school canteens. You also have no right to fill my arteries with fat, do you?”
