The Jamaican Ministry of Education has recalled the health and family life education curriculum from high schools following parents’ complaints that the text promoted homosexuality, local media reported.
The text has been developed for Caribbean schools under the auspices of UNICEF as a teaching manual and was not on the students' book list.
The segment of the curriculum that caused uproar among the parents was Sexuality and Sexual Health: Personal Risk and Assessment Checklist, which was geared to grades seven to nine.
The Gleaner, a Jamaican publication, reported on Saturday that among the questions posed to students in the textbook were:
*Have you ever had sexual intercourse?
*Have you ever had anal sex without a condom?
*If you have never slept with a member of your own sex, is it possible you might be gay if you tried it?
*Why do heterosexuals seduce others into their lifestyle?
The book also instructed students to perform a number of exercises to better understand their sexuality.
Education Minister Ronald Thwaites has ordered that the controversial textbook be withdrawn from the school system and revised.
“I consider sections of the material inappropriate for any age and certainly for the grade 7 & 8 students for which it is designed,” Thwaites said in a statement on Friday.
Jamaica is a conservative Catholic state known for its resistance to the promotion of homosexuality.
In 2007, a textbook on home economics was ordered to be withdrawn from the curriculum after it was discovered that the book listed homosexual unions as a family option.
