The controversial transition year programme, Exploring Masculinities, has been dealt a serious blow with the largest parents' group in the State calling for it to be withdrawn from Catholic schools.
Ms Barbara Johnston, spokeswoman for the Catholic Secondary Schools Parents Association (CSPA), which represents over 300 schools, described the programme as "totally unsuitable".
A submission from the CSPA claims the programme undermines young boys by asking them to disclose their feelings about private and personal matters in the classroom.
The Department of Education has previously defended the programme, which is taken in transition year by many boys' schools. However, following instructions from the Minister for Education, Dr Woods, the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) is reviewing it.
The Department says the programme is designed to help boys "manage their feelings and communicate". The opposition of the CSPA is likely to put pressure on the Department to at least alter the programme. The programme is also being challenged in the courts at present.
The CSPA, in its submission to the NCCA, says: "The classroom is not a therapy session, the teacher is not a psychiatrist and the pupils have not undergone clinical diagnosis which indicates that they need group therapy of any kind." It adds: "This programme has no place in any Catholic school or should not be imposed upon a Catholic teenager, regardless of the school where he attends. To do so would be unethical and patently wrong."
According to Department of Education officials who have worked on the programme, the aim is to help boys let go of "aggression or any other feelings of inadequacy that arise when they measure themselves against the ideal male who doesn't exist".
However, the CSPA submission, written by Mr David Hegarty, says: "Presenting a notion that men are more insensitive and more violent than women is challengeable, to say the least. As human beings, we are all sinners, according to common sense and borne out by Christian teachings.
"The idea of turning a transition-year classroom into a violence prevention counselling service is unacceptable."
The CSPA submission also objects to the programme's teaching on homosexuality. It says Catholics who object to homosexual acts should not be undermined by the programme.
"Why is a programme developed using public money based on the assumption that taxpayers and citizens are deemed to be in need of some kind of psychological reconstruction merely because, in accordance with their religious beliefs, they consider homosexual activity . . . to be morally wrong?"
It concedes there are "some good and praiseworthy topics" in the programme.
"Efforts to draw attention to violence in the home or in sporting activities are certainly worthy of attention, especially by adults in the proper setting. Letting teenage boys see and appreciate that manliness is not merely related to sporting accomplishment is a good thing."
The group also claims the programme does not draw students' attention to celibacy as a lifestyle.