A new report by the highly respected and influential think tank Policy Exchange has found that 40% of state secondary schools allow children to self-declare their gender without parental consent or knowledge.

The report, based on more than 300 freedom of information requests made to a randomly selected group of schools, found that four in ten operated policies of gender self-identification, with a massive three quarters failing to inform parents of their child's gender "distress".

At the same time, it found that schools dealing with a "gender-distressed" child required staff and other pupils to affirm the child's new identity. It also found that at least 19 per cent of secondary schools were failing to maintain single-sex changing rooms or cloakroom facilities, meaning that vulnerable adolescent girls, whatever their personal views, were being forced to share what should be their 'safe' spaces with males.

The report's findings reveal not just the shocking extent to which schools have become compliant with radical gender ideology – the belief that masculine and feminine distinctions are at base social constructs that operate to maintain outmoded cultural dominance – but also their rampant failure to safeguard the children in their care, as required under law. This is unacceptable.

The unconscionable truth is that children of all ages, and as young as five, are being routinely taught that a person's gender identity may be different from his or her biological sex, and that some people are "born in the wrong body". Small wonder the number of children presenting as gender dysphoric has skyrocketed in recent years!

It is surely time for us to face the truth. Without socially engineered pressure, the numbers involved are actually extremely small – according to recent figures released by the Office for National Statistics, the number of people identifying as trans in 2021 was 262,000 people, or 0.5% of the population.

The current trend is not towards enlightenment and compassionate recognition for vast numbers of people, cruelly and wrongfully oppressed by outmoded religion, or even exploitative capitalism and endangered by challenge to the status quo. It is political indoctrination of the worst kind, by ideologues whose sole purpose, it would seem, is to destroy the moral framework of society.

Let us be clear, the purpose of education is to equip and prepare a child for adult life, giving them the skills that will enable them to take their place in, and contribute to, society. It goes without saying that no two children are the same, and one of the primary functions of education must be to help a child identify and best develop their own unique gifts, allowing them to discover 'who' and 'what' they are, without pressure and within a safe environment.

It is neither the function nor objective of education to attempt to control or direct the ideas and values by which an individual chooses to live, or to demand social conformity with a disputed value system for which there is no scientific or biological basis.

At the same time, schools are required by law to remain politically impartial, which means that the promotion of partisan political views – such as gender ideology – is prohibited and that, where political issues are taught, there should be a balanced presentation of opposing views.

In recent years, however, this has gone by the board, with beliefs about gender identity becoming embedded within the curriculum as though they are facts, and opposing or dissenting views – even those legitimately based on religion – rigorously suppressed.

Our schools' system, that was once the envy of the world, has become not just inadequate but, to quote the Policy Exchange's own assessment, "rotten to the core."

Allowing overtly LGBT campaign groups such as Stonewall or Mermaids to shape educational policy, in the process embedding their controversial and highly disputed beliefs about gender identity, is not just a recipe for disaster, but is a dereliction of the duty we owe our young.

Children are the future and this insanity must end. In particular, the ideological promotion of gender choice, for which there is no scientific basis, must be removed from education, and parents must be informed of any issues their child might be having. And they, not schools or even social services, must be allowed to decide what constitutes their child's best help and support. Similarly, current social coercion that puts teachers in fear for their jobs if they fail to comply with the new Weltanschauung must end, as must the coercive intimidation of all who disagree on religious grounds.

Rev Lynda Rose is founder of Voice for Justice UK, a group which works to uphold the moral values of the Bible in society.