A new wave of debate has erupted in Seville after the city administration ordered a halt to the distribution of educational workbooks on sex education among schoolchildren. These materials, which had been used in educational institutions for more than two decades, are now under scrutiny.
The municipality, led by the Partido Popular, explained its decision by citing the need to review the content with the involvement of experts from various scientific fields. At the same time, officials emphasize that they are considering the advisability of continuing to publish such materials, since matters of sex education do not fall directly within the city’s jurisdiction.
The Vox party, which supported the governing coalition’s budget initiatives, welcomed this move. Representatives of the movement recalled that such changes had been discussed in closed meetings between political forces several months ago. For Vox, abandoning the previous workbooks is part of a broader strategy to reshape educational policy in the region.
The notebooks were intended for primary school students around 11 years old. They covered topics such as healthy eating, personal hygiene, injury prevention, as well as issues of equality, historical memory, cinema, and even around-the-world travel. However, public attention was particularly drawn to a section explaining to teenagers that masturbation is a natural and common practice that helps to better understand one’s body. This passage became the subject of heated debate after, in 2022, a Vox candidate in the Andalusian elections mistakenly accused the regional authorities of publishing such materials, although in fact, they were produced by the Seville municipality under socialist leadership.
The city council claims that the decision to stop distributing the notebooks is not related to political agreements, but is due to the need to update information and involve university experts. Nevertheless, Vox representatives insist that their position influenced the rejection of the previous educational materials.
The Socialists, who previously initiated the publication of these materials, sharply condemned the current administration’s actions, calling them an act of censorship and a concession to the far right. In their view, along with the discontinuation of the notebooks, other social programs aimed at combating violence, supporting migrants, and promoting equality have also been cut. Instead, they claim, agreements have been made with organizations opposing abortion and supporting religious initiatives to increase the birth rate.
The parents’ association leadership notes that in recent years it has become more difficult to organize extracurricular activities on equality and sex education, which were previously overseen by the city’s women’s affairs department. Now, many parents and educators are questioning how future work with teenagers will be organized and who will take responsibility for informing them about such sensitive issues.
