The omission of gender identity from the New National Curriculum was an error in the first draft according to the DfE. Following hot on the heels of the discovery that many English schools and 2 Welsh schools still carried wording form the pernicious Section 28 in their Sex and Relationships Education (SRE) policy statements, Alice Hoyle, an SRE Advisory teacher and equal rights advocate noticed that in its opening statement regarding the Equality Act, the term gender identity had disappeared from the list of protected characteristics.
This caused major concern among trans groups, among them Gendered Intelligence whose co-founder Jay Stewart commented that many young people are revealing their gender variance at school rather than at a later stage in their lives.
Speaking to Gay Star News, a DfE spokesman said: ‘This was a drafting error. The final version of the national curriculum framework document will include a list of all protected characteristics under the Equality Act – including gender reassignment.’
Previously when asked why gender identity had been removed from the equalities statement, a Department for Education spokesman told GSN: ‘Teachers are best-placed to understand the needs of their pupils and to tailor their programme to reflect the needs of their pupils.’
– See more at: http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/uk-government-protections-trans-school-kids-were-removed-error220813#sthash.V26FHpZc.dpuf