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Gender at school
In recent years schools have become an important channel through which pupils come into contact with views on gender, identity and transition. Much of what schools offer under the heading of "inclusion" goes beyond informing: it contains normative claims about biological sex and gender identity that are scientifically and socially contested. That bears directly on the responsibility of parents and on the impartiality that education should preserve.
What are pupils being offered?
Alongside regular lessons on sexuality and citizenship, more and more schools use materials supplied by advocacy organisations such as COC Nederland and related groups. In that material it is often presented that everyone has an "inner gender identity", that sex is "assigned" at birth and that there is a spectrum of genders. These are theoretical positions, not established facts. Sex is observed at birth, not assigned. Gender identity is a concept that rests on self-report and cannot be measured objectively.
A considerable share of parents are unaware that their child receives this type of lesson, and in what form. There is no statutory duty to inform parents in advance about the content, while the message can have far-reaching consequences for young people at an identity-forming age.
The affirmation-first approach
When a pupil tells the school they feel they are the other sex, schools increasingly opt for immediate affirmation: a new name, new pronouns, use of the toilets of the other sex. This affirmative route is presented as neutral and safe, but it is not. Research — summarised among others in the British Cass Review (2024) — shows that social transition at school is not an innocent intermediate step, but can entrench the identification and demonstrably increases the likelihood of later medical transition.
In the United Kingdom the NHS and the Department for Education have adjusted their policy accordingly: schools are advised not to go along with social transition without parental involvement and not to create faits accomplis. In the Netherlands such a guideline is still lacking. Schools often act on the basis of advice from activist organisations, not on the basis of clinical evidence.
Parental consent
At several schools it has occurred that a social transition was supported without parents being informed, or even at the express request of the pupil bypassing the parents. This bears on parental authority and on the right to a confidential family relationship. Social transition is a far-reaching step with psychological and possibly medical consequences in the long term; it is not comparable to a new nickname or a different hairstyle. Decisions about it belong with the parents, in consultation with trained clinicians — not with school staff acting on the basis of a lesson sheet.
Bullying and safety
Every pupil deserves a safe school environment, and that certainly applies to pupils who deviate from group norms. A safe school requires clear rules of conduct and proper supervision, not identity-political programmes. Merging safety policy with activist lesson material makes the debate on bullying inadvertently controversial and can put parents and schools at odds with one another.
Education and scientific nuance
Good education presents contested subjects as contested. Instead of one narrative, pupils should learn the factual state of affairs: that there are two biological sexes, that the majority of children with gender dysphoria grow out of it without intervention (see desistance), that the evidence base under youth transition is weak and that several European countries have tightened their care model. Without that nuance it is not education but indoctrination.