The school textbook, used in some 3ième classes (third last year of classic secondary school system at an equivalent age to GCSE students) features an exercise that asked students how many litres of red and white paint two boys would need to repaint their bedroom in pink. The names of the two boys? Xavier and Etienne.
In the first edition, published in Belgium, the exercise originally used two girls’ names, according Lex Folscheid of the Ministry of Education. A working group changed the names in the book’s second version, which was distributed in Luxembourgish high schools in 2015.
Folscheid went on to explain that the name change made no sense in itself, appearing to be more of a deliberate action rather than a coincidence, given that the two boys names' are the same as Luxembourg's prime minister and deputy prime minister. He explained that the ministry has to assume this is 'no coincidence', claiming the chance of it being a coincidence is smaller than being hit by lightning twice in a lifetime, or winning the lottery.
Folscheid went on to say that this homophobic stereotype was likely deliberately slipped into the textbook. While the statue of limitations on pursuing the case in court has passed, the Ministry of Education maintains that this kind of behaviour should be the subject of a disciplinary procedure.
The working group concerned was, at the time, in direct contact with the Belgian publisher. This procedure changed following the 2017 reform introducing the SCRIPT institution (the coordination service for research and pedagogical innovation), which is now responsible for managing relations with different publishers.
The book will henceforth be withdrawn from the program and the ministry will order a new edition for the next school year. As the stock is relatively small, this will not cost too much. The current book can still be used without the exercise in question.
The Ministry of Education only became aware of the issue when MP Franz Fayot submitted a parliamentary question on the incident. The ministry is unable to explain how no one noticed or reported this "coincidence" over the past three years.
