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The Education Ministry’s assistant under-secretary for curricula and educational supervision, Ahlam Ahmed Al Amer, has hit back at MPs attacking a schoolbook they labelled offensive and allegedly promoting homosexuality.
She took to the ministry’s Instagram and Twitter accounts and said the book had been taught in schools since 2007 without controversy.
Lessons are supervised by teachers and uphold Arab, Islamic and educational values, she added.
“The curricula are based on scientific and educational foundations and principles,” said Ms Al Amer in the social media post. “It promotes dialogue with the aim of the comprehensive personal development of the learner and consolidates the constants of belief, values and morals and does not deviate from them.
The page exhibited in Parliament
Psychology
“It is led by teachers in the classroom as they are the ones who guide learners with educational methods that include thought-stimulating strategies and methods of teaching and learning based on educational psychology.”
As reported in the GDN, MPs had unanimously voted to seek an immediate government probe into content found in the Family Education 101 book after outraged social media users urged them to get the chapter deleted for being ‘offensive’.
MPs also demanded that the entire subject be suspended until the content had been removed.
A sample page from the book in question was displayed during Parliament’s weekly session featuring a caricature of a male student looking at himself in a mirror, surrounded by hearts around him with questions including: “What is your name? Do you like your name? Are you a male or a female? Do you like your gender? How do you see your face, hair, nose and mouth?”
Ms Al Amer pointed out that this lesson has been applied for many years and no comments have ever been received about it before. “So whoever looks at the lesson and the unit as a whole, will understand its desired educational goals and the scientific content,” she added.
“It establishes self-building and pride.
“The educational unit entitled ‘Self-Concept’ has been prepared in the family education book for the first secondary grade.”
The aim of the course is to allow pupils to look at themselves in a positive way, deals with personal identity and the uniqueness of individuals. The unit includes questions for educational purposes that enhance the learner’s ability to start dialogues and discussions.
The controversy surrounds an individual introductory activity section used at the beginning of a lesson to motivate students, governed by a set of educational goals which are stated on the opposite page and educationists claim it has been taken out of context.
“It is up to the teacher to achieve these goals through the lesson by asking questions about the student’s concept of himself, to adopt positive concepts through which he cherishes his personal identity with all its components, so that the student realises self-worth, confidence and self-esteem,” added Ms Al Amer.
Further goals that reinforce religious values and principles of a sound life can be found on 27 pages and one other is entitled: ‘How do we build and develop our personality?’ which stipulates a deep belief in ‘God Almighty, for He, Glory be to Him, is in His hand the keys to goodness and guidance’, the post proclaimed.
“The second lesson also includes human and Islamic values and their impact on the formation of the personality and this reinforces the value that the whole unit seeks to root in the souls of young people,” she added.
She also stated that the Family Education courses include life skills and moral traits that help develop personalities and instil self-confidence whilst keeping in line with Islamic values and Arab concepts.
mai.alkhatib@gulfweekly.com
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