Gender questions in schools 'irrelevant'

A questionnaire sent to parents of pupils at a primary school is causing some disquiet.

Formulated by the University of Geneva the idea of the test was to check the child’s ‘working memory’ – so far so good. 

But then there were gender questions, such as ‘what gender does your child identify with? And ‘what was the sex of your child at birth?’

While the cantonal Education Department had given the green light to the questionnaire, the gender questions were unexpected. 

The education minister, Anne Hiltpold, has intervened and says the questions were not relevant.

The university says the questions were clumsy. A spokesman says they would ‘obviously offend outside specialized circles’.

Hiltpold already intervened in another case with a school in Lully wanted to eliminate Mother’s Day and replace it with day dedicated to ‘those we love.’ She ordered the school to stick with Mother’s Day.

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