The question of the content of Polish sex education became big in earnest after a citizen proposal called "Stop pedophilia".
The initiators are the abortion opponents "Prawo do życia", ie "Right to life".
The group believes that sex education according to the World Health Organization's WHO standard sexualises children.
Prawo do życia wants sexual counselors to be punished with up to three years in prison, a proposal that has been met with loud protests from, among others, the women's rights movement.
Opposes "HTBQ ideology"
The national conservative government party Law and Justice believes that the proposal is over-interpreted, but the party is increasingly distancing itself from liberal values of sexuality.
Party leader Jarosław Kaczyński recently said that the "LGBTQ ideology" will not be in question as long as his party is in power.
In April 2020, the Polish lower house voted for the controversial proposal to be investigated in a special commission, since then the issue has been on ice.
- The various sides of the debate that previously may have tried to find consensus have now been pulled apart.
There are groups that stand for a very conservative sex education - and groups that try to be increasingly progressive, says sex counselor Finka Heynemann.
Sexual counselors critical
She herself works for the non-profit sex education organization Ponton, which wants to see a more liberal teaching.
- My organization has become much more confident when it comes to discussing, for example, gender identity and feminism.
In Poland, these issues are very progressive and not at all natural.
According to Heynemann, current teaching has major shortcomings.
- The syllabus mentions almost nothing about contraception, sexuality, violence in close relationships and nothing about sexual orientation.
"Preparing for family life"
The lessons are practice voluntary for the students and go under the name "Preparation for family life".
According to Heynemann, it is a lottery if the student gets adequate knowledge or not.
In smaller schools, it is not uncommon for teaching to be held by religion teachers.
- Sex education has been reduced to something that is about avoiding unwanted pregnancies, but it does not even work.