AN ACTIVITY IN an SPHE textbook that showed an ‘exaggerated’ view on diversity is set to be removed following backlash.

Publisher Edco has apologised for the inclusion of the exercise, which it says was designed to help students understand the importance of diversity.

The pages in question are included in the book Health and Wellbeing, a text book for the SPHE syllabus.

SPHE stands for Social, Personal, Health Education, and the curriculum aims to help young people develop life skills.

The pages in question are included in the book Health and Wellbeing and show two families.

In an exercise showing two families, one family is a ‘stereotypically Irish family’ that doesn’t interact with anyone or anything not from Ireland. The illustration shows them wearing woolen jumpers and living in a thatched cottage.

The text says they only play traditionally Irish musical instruments and sports, but “no foreign games”. It also says they believe that mixing with other religions or cultures “would be a bad influence”.

In contrast, the second family says they “love change and difference”. They eat curry, pizza and Asian food and go on camping holidays in Europe. A son in the family is a volunteer with the Red Cross in Syria and the daughter studied abroad in France.

The family that "love change and difference"

Photos of the pages in the textbook were shared online and garnered significant criticism in recent days.

Numerous people commented that it was a negative portrayal of Irish people.

In a statement, Edco said: “We would like to say that we welcome the public’s interest in this issue and the whole area of SPHE.

“Following the students’ introduction to the Equal Status Acts, the activity uses exaggeration and hyperbole to convey the nature and effects of inclusion and bias.

“On closer inspection,” they continued, “we now appreciate that our approach should have been different and accept that it has caused upset and anger, even though this was not our intention.

“We have taken the decision to replace this activity and we apologise for any hurt caused.”