The Victorian government is introducing a new mandatory school subject in an effort to end family violence.
The state’s “respectful relationships” curriculum will be rolled out in primary and secondary schools next year.
In primary years, the focus is on “respect and dignity” and secondary students will be taught about the relationship between gender and power.
Year 11 and 12 students will learn strategies if they witness sexual harassment occurring among their peers.
Students will also be taught about “male privilege”, but critics say the $21.8 million education program is “indoctrination of children”.
“The idea behind this program – that all men are latent abusers by nature of the ‘discourse’ – is an idea that only cloistered feminist academics could love,” Jeremy Sammut, a senior research fellow at the Centre for Independent Studies, told The Australian.
“A lot of evidence suggests that like child abuse, domestic violence is a byproduct of social dysfunction: welfare, drugs, family breakdown,” he added.
However Minister for Education James Merlino says education is the key to ending “the vicious cycle of family violence”.
“This is about teaching our kids to treat everyone with respect and dignity so we can start the cultural change we need in our society to end the scourge of family violence,” he said.