Shenali D Waduge

In 2025, the New Zealand Ministry of Education removed the Relationships & Sexuality Education (RSE) guidelines from the curriculum framework. It took just 5 years to realize the damage. In 2020, schools were taught about relationships, gender, sexuality, consent, online media from years 0 to 13. RSE was New Zealand’s term for Global CSE (following UN ITGSE pro-gender/woke curriculum). When New Zealands govt says the 2020 framework will be replaced with a new clearer curriculum framework” it indicates that the 2020-2025 was problematic. When the Govt says the new framework will decide ‘what should be taught at each age” it indicates that the 2020-2025 curriculum did not.  While New Zealand steps back to reassess, Sri Lanka’s government is moving forward aggressively — embracing the very same gender- and sexuality-driven educational reforms that another country has already abandoned.

This contradiction demands public attention.

More importantly, why did New Zealand remove the 2020 guidelines?

1.    refocusing on academic achievement not ideology”

o   New Zealand wants to focus more on traditional academic subjects & less on ideology especially related to gender & sexuality.

o   THE SRI LANKAN GOVT IS MOVING AWAY FROM ACADEMIC SUBJECTS TO EMBRACE GENDER & SEXUALITY.

2.    Gender identity topics not age-appropriate for students” –

2. SRI LANKA’S EDUCATIONAL REFORMS REVOLVE AROUND IMPLEMENTING NOT ONLY GENDER IDEOLOGY BUT DIGITALIZATION WHICH EVEN WESTERN COUNTRIES NOW ACKNOWLEDGE IS DAMAGING TO THE CHILD.

What did New Zealands’s 2020 RSE guidelines actually focus on? 

·      Gender diversity, consent & inclusivity

·      Navigating pornography

New Zealand’s reversal is not a victory for conservatism, religion, or politics. 

It is a victory for common sense, child development, and parental responsibility.

A government does not remove national education guidelines unless the consequences are serious. New Zealand removed its 2020 sexuality education framework because it blurred age boundaries, replaced academic focus with ideology, 

and failed to protect children’s cognitive and emotional development. Parents spoke. Society pushed back. The government listened.

Sri Lanka must ask itself a hard question:

Why are we rushing to implement an education model that even Western nations are now retreating from?

At a time when global evidence increasingly acknowledges:

·      the harm of early sexualisation,

·      the damage caused by excessive digital exposure, and

·      the confusion created by premature gender ideology,

Sri Lanka is being told that academics insist” these reforms are necessary. 

The same justification was used in New Zealand. It collapsed under public scrutiny.

Education is not a social experiment. Children are not ideological test subjects.

If New Zealand needed only five years to recognise the damage and step back, Sri Lanka has no excuse to ignore that warning. 

True progress lies not in copying failed global models, but in protecting children, respecting parents, and prioritising real education over ideology.

Pause. Review. Protect our children — before the damage is done. 

Shenali D Waduge

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/new-zealand-to-axe-sex-ed-guidelines-in-schools-after-woke-extremism-campaign/tzgrirs32