A CALL from government advisers for “gay” primary school pupils to be given minders to protect them from bullies and for schools to teach anti-homophobia classes has been condemned as “sinister” by religious leaders.

The Catholic church has criticised the recommendations, which follow a Scottish executive study which claims that children are aware of their sexuality at a younger age than was previously thought.

Researchers claim to have identified children in primary seven who describe themselves as gay.

The report, by Edinburgh University’s Centre for Education for Racial Equality and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Youth Scotland, advocates “buddy” schemes to protect vulnerable primary and secondary school pupils and recommends anti-homophobia classes to curb bullying.

The specially trained “buddies” would offer to listen to gay pupils’ problems and report the bullies to teachers.

“Buddy schemes are an approach that has been very, very successful in the States but there has been very little of them so far in the UK,” said Sarah Aboud, LGBT Youth Scotland’s development manager. “The idea is to create safe spaces for young people which is really crucial.

“It’s about young people coming together regardless of their sexual orientation.”

However, the suggestion has angered some religious leaders, educationalists and politicians. They claim that the pupils are too young to know for certain that they are gay and warn that children will be stigmatised unnecessarily.

The Scottish Catholic Church described the recommendations as “totally nonsensical and dangerously cynical”.

“This is a sinister attempt to sexualise a generation of Scottish children,” said a spokesman. “Children routinely engage in robust name-calling, using insults they don’t even understand. The idea that this is a concerted campaign to disadvantage one group of children is laughable.”

Victor Topping, of the NASUWT teaching union, dismissed the recommendations as “an over-reaction”.

“How would a 12-year-old know that he or she is gay?” he said. “They haven’t experienced life, they haven’t experienced relationships with the opposite sex. There is no need to teach children in primary school about homosexuality.”

The researchers, who conducted an internet survey, said they identified two primary seven pupils who described themselves as gay while another was “unsure”.

A further eight children aged 12 to 14 identified themselves as “gay, lesbian bisexual or questioning”.

“These young people are clearly identifying their sexual orientation at a young age,” the report concludes.

“This . . . along with the experience of homophobic bullying at an early age calls into question the belief that all primary and early secondary age school pupils are unaware and “innocent” of issues surrounding homophobia and sexual orientation and are therefore unprepared to engage in anti-homophobia work and the discussion of LGBT issues.”

Almost half of the education authorities and schools that responded to the survey said they were aware of homophobic name-calling, but only 1% of schools was aware of physical homophobic bullying.

Some teachers said they did not regard homophobic name-calling to be as offensive as racist language. The authors suggested that some teachers set a poor example by making homophobic jokes.

The study warns that unless homophobic bullying is tackled in the same way as racism and sectarianism, gay victims will suffer depression, play truant and exam results will suffer.

Schools are free to introduce lessons about gay sex following the repeal of section 28, which banned the promotion of homosexuality in the classroom.

Professor Paddy O’Donnell, head of Glasgow University’s department of psychology, said there was evidence that some children were aware of their sexuality at an early age.

The Scottish executive said schools were free to decide how to tackle homophobic bullying.

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