According to an investigation, the British private schools established in the Middle East have scrapped the anti-homophobia guidelines from their respective bullying charters.
The rules which have been designed to stop homophobic bullying were being abolished by the international franchises of schools, including King’s College, Royal Grammar School (RGS), Sherborne and Guildford.
This guideline has been removed as the schools have been situated in an extremely religious society, where homosexuality is illegal and strict Islamic government guidelines have been abided. Reportedly, to obtain the operating licences, schools willing to open on the Arabian Peninsula have been ordered to follow strict Islamic government guidelines on curriculum content, ownership and patriotism.
Other such rules in the region are that the teachers of the Middle East have been ordered to avoid teaching about the Holocaust, evolution and the existence of Israel to the pupils.
On Friday night, charities working for the rights of the people belonging to the LGBTQ+ community urged the school authorities to create an environment in which all the children will grow up accepting each other.
The investigation by The Times, further revealed that the King’s College in Doha had removed homophobia from its bullying charter. The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty on Children (NSPCC) is responsible for setting the bullying charters, and according to the society references, “racial, sexual and homophobic bullying” must be in the list while in King’s College’s list there is only “racial and sexual bullying”.
The Society has often raised concern over the same issue, the King’s claimed that their list has been due to be updated and said that their new list consists “homophobic”.
Meanwhile, a spokeswoman of the RGS said that the authorities must obey the laws of the region where the schools have been situated. She further said the Royal Grammar School Guildford would challenge the bullying.
However, the Sherborne School in Dorset has said that the school authorities will not support any bullying against LGBT people and the policies and practices are inclusive.