The General Inspectorate of Education and Science launched an investigation into the two school directors mentioned by Público, to investigate the presence of digital influencers who promote sexual and misogynistic content in schools, the Minister of Education revealed this Wednesday, March 4th.
“An investigation was launched into the two directors who were cited by the newspaper Público, given that from the citations that are made, and therefore there will be an investigation, it is deduced that they do not know their responsibility”, stated minister Fernando Alexandre.
“And that is a problem: principals have to know what their responsibility is, it is not the minister or an entity in Lisbon that will control entry to schools throughout the national territory”, where there are 5,400 schools.
The government official was speaking at the Center’s Regional Coordination and Development Commission (CCDR), in Coimbra, after the presentation of the PTRR (Portugal, Transformation, Recovery and Resilience), behind closed doors, and also after the inauguration of vice-presidents of the Center’s CCDR.
According to the Minister of Education, Science and Innovation, “it is the responsibility of schools to control who enters the school – and this is provided for in the law -, and they can only enter activities that are duly included in what is the mission” of educational establishments.
The minister also announced the creation of a working group to, by the end of the month, produce “guidelines for these specific cases and others”.
The objective is that “principals who have more doubts about how they should act in these circumstances” can “protect the school space from the entry of entities or individuals who do not have the legitimacy to enter and who disrupt the educational process and the training of children and young people”.
The Government will create the group with the General Inspectorate of Education and Science, and will invite the National Confederation of Parents’ Associations (CONFAP), the Agency for the Management of the Educational System and the Educa program.
On the sidelines of the event, questioned by journalists about Livre’s request, Fernando Alexandre said that he will respond to the party and that he will be “always available to go to parliament”, saying that he was already, in those statements, giving the justification for what the Ministry of Education is doing.
“The responsibility of those who enter schools lies with the school management, there is no doubt about that. In fact, it is no coincidence that the General Inspectorate immediately initiated, even without my recommendation, a survey of the teachers who were mentioned”, he reiterated.
Livre requested on Tuesday an urgent parliamentary hearing from the Minister of Education and the National Association of Directors of Groups and Public Schools regarding the presence of digital influencers who promote sexual and misogynistic content in schools.
This request comes after a report published by the newspaper Público according to which 79 public schools received, in the last two academic years, digital influencers who promote sexual and misogynistic content, under the cover of the animation of campaigns by student associations.
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