An open letter to the Ministry of Education, petitioning for the removal of AWARE as a sex education provider

An open letter to the Ministry of Education, petitioning for the removal of AWARE as a sex education provider

The petition

Please sign the petition below if you agree that MOE should not allow AWARE to continue being a sexuality education provider to schools.

Deadline for submission to MOE: 31 May 2009

Thank you for your support!

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To: The Minister for Education
Dear Sir

OPEN LETTER TO MOE REQUESTING FOR REMOVAL OF AWARE AS SEXUALITY EDUCATION PROVIDER

We refer to the Press Release of the Ministry of Education (“MOE”) dated 7th May 2009. We thank the MOE for its clear statement and reassurance that “MOE and the schools do not promote alternative lifestyles to our students. MOE’s framework for sexuality education reflects the mainstream views and values of Singapore society, where the social norm consists of the married heterosexual family unit”. We also appreciate the MOE’s decisive move in swiftly suspending all sexuality education programs by external providers.

Nevertheless, we note that AWARE is unapologetic for its non-conformance with MOE’s guidelines. In this regard we refer to the ongoing petition against AWARE at http://www.ipetitions.com/peti...

AWARE’s:
(a) consistent wilful or negligent non-compliance with MOE’s guidelines over 2 years;
(b) unapologetic stance with respect to the above; and
(c) continuing assertions that they stand by their erroneous CSE programme

together indicate a lack of regard for the severity of their actions. More importantly, such behaviour gives parents no confidence that AWARE will respect or comply with MOE guidelines in the future. We are also not confident that values contrary to Singapore’s mainstream views and values will not be introduced by AWARE or its trainers into its programs in future under the guise of ‘discussion’ or in a manner such as would escape detection by MOE, parents or schools.

In other words, AWARE has not only betrayed our trust but has also completely lost the trust of parents to continue delivering sexuality education programmes to our children. As responsible parents, we cannot accept or tolerate any further contact between an untrustworthy provider such as AWARE and our impressionable children, particularly on sensitive areas such as sexuality education that can have far-reaching impact on our childrens’ values and lives.

In the circumstances, we:
(1) strongly urge the MOE to remove AWARE as a sexuality education programme provider. Apart from providing much-needed reassurance to parents that they need no longer fear the intrusion of AWARE into our children’s schools, we believe that this is also necessary to send a clear deterrent message to all external providers that MOE’s guidelines are to be strictly adhered to, and that there will be consequences for failing to do so.

(2) respectfully request that MOE procures the release and full disclosure of all CSE programme materials, including all instructor guides and notes, to parents whose children have been through the CSE programme. This is so that parents will be informed of the full extent to which the CSE programme departed from Singapore’s mainstream values and be equipped to remedy any damage or confusion, or correct any wrong thinking resulting from their children’s exposure to the CSE programme. We believe that AWARE should be fully accountable to parents for the contents of the CSE Programme, and have reason to believe that there are other materials apart from the Basic Instructor Guide which should be made available for parental and MOE scrutiny, including an advanced instructor guide.

Thank you for your kind attention to this matter.
Yours faithfully

cc. The Prime Minister’s Office

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/ban_aware_from_schools/

http://forums.delphiforums.com/sunkopitiam/messages?msg=28486.168