The provincial government will bring in its health and education curriculum this fall, but will leave out the controversial sex education aspect for now.
 
The sections that will go forward deal with healthy eating, active living and teaching students about Internet safety so they won't be vulnerable to online sexual predators.

Education Minister Leona Dombrowsky said Tuesday that parents will be given time to get familiar with the document and share their opinions.

She is inviting anyone to send emails or letters expressing their views on teaching subjects such as homosexuality as early as Grade 3.

The sex-ed curriculum currently being used has not been updated since 1998.

Under the proposed new curriculum Grade 3 students would have learned about gender identity. Students in Grades 6 to 8 would have learned about healthy relationships and how to prevent unwanted pregnancies and sexually-transmitted infections.

A conservative Christian group announced a week ago it would hold a protest and pull its members' children out of school on May 10 to protest the new curriculum, which was quietly released on Jan. 18, the day Premier Dalton McGuinty shuffled his cabinet. He moved then-education minister Kathleen Wynne to the transportation portfolio.

Some reports have suggested McGuinty wasn't aware of the details of the new curriculum.

Last Wednesday, McGuinty said that any parents uncomfortable with parts of the curriculum could pull their children out of the classroom for that material.

However, on Thursday, after his ministers vigorously defended the new curriculum in Queen's Park's question period, McGuinty announced in London that he would be putting the policy on hold pending a rethink.

He said that given the backlash, the government had to find a curriculum with which parents could be comfortable.

Dr. David McKeown, Toronto's chief medical officer of health, has defended the changes to the curriculum.

"In a culture where unreliable information is rampant, it is essential that our schools protect public health and promote healthy sexuality by providing evidence-driven and comprehensive sexual education," he said in a statement.

With files from CTV Toronto’s Paul Bliss