A lesson plan that would teach junior certificate pupils that ‘gender identity’ is “experienced along a spectrum” has been dropped after consultation with the public. Gender theory teaches that your ‘gender’ has no necessary connection to your biological sex.

The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) agreed to change a “learning outcome” in a draft for a new curriculum for social, personal and health education (SPHE), according to papers seen by The Sunday Times.

The original proposal aimed to help students “appreciate that sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression are core parts of human identity and that each is experienced along a spectrum”.

The final specification for the curriculum, which is yet to be published, references a wider range of characteristics as determinants of a pupil’s identity. It will no longer teach that gender identity and expression are on a spectrum.