Odisha: Schools to soon have gender equity curriculum

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

Bhubaneswar, Aug 09:
A
gender
equity
curriculum
will
be
integrated
into
the
syllabus
for
students
across
government
schools
in
Odisha
to
transform
their
attitudes,
aspirations
and
behaviour.
The
School
Education
Department
signed
an
agreement
with
the
Abdul
Latif
Jameel
Poverty
Action
Lab
(J-Pal),
South
Asia,
and
women
rights’ organisation
Breakthrough
in
Bhubaneswar
on
Monday.
The
curriculum
uses
interactive
classroom
discussions
to
encourage
adolescent
boys
and
girls
to
reflect
on
the
culturally-embedded
gender
norms,
roles
and
discriminatory
practices,
according
to
an
official
release,
news
agency
PTI
reported.

It
will
be
integrated
into
the
social
studies
syllabus
for
boys
and
girls
from
classes
6-10
in
over
18,000
elementary
and
5,000
secondary
schools
by
August.
“Adolescence
presents
a
crucial
window
of
opportunity
to
change
even
deeply-rooted
norms
and
instill
more
progressive
gender
attitudes,”
J-Pal
South
Asia
executive
director
Shobhini
Mukerji
said.

International
Day
of
Women
in
Diplomacy:
Pushing
through
barriers
of
Gender
norms

Breakthrough
will
work
with
the
department
to
contextualise
and
integrate
the
curriculum
into
the
syllabus,
train
teachers,
receive
feedback,
conduct
workshops
and
engage
parents
in
the
process
as
well.
J-Pal
will
conduct
independent
monitoring
activities
to
ensure
that
the
programme
is
achieving
its
objectives
to
generate
insights
for
sustained,
high-quality
government
implementation
of
the
syllabus.

“Gender
equality
is
very
important.
We
are
working
on
it.”
School
Education
Minister
Samir
Dash
said.

The
expected
outcomes
of
the
programme
include
positive
gender
attitudes,
parents
investing
in
education
for
daughters,
improved
sex
ratio
and
more
labour
force
participation
by
women.
The
project
aims
to
ensure
that
girls
have
choices
for
their
education
and
work
participation,
retention
of
girls
in
schools
for
more
number
of
years
and
reduction
in
dropouts
and
increase
in
age
of
marriage
and
first
childbirth,
Breakthrough
chief
executive
officer
Sohini
Bhattacharya
underlined
that
gender
perceptions
get
formed
at
a
young
age.

“Therefore,
we
need
to
ensure
that
children,
especially
those
between
the
10-15
years,
have
access
to
the
right
information
related
to
gender
equality,
legal
rights,
and
healthy
gender
behaviours,”
Bhattacharya
said.
The
implementation
of
the
Gender
Equity
Programme
will
help
in
achieving
the
state’s
sustainable
development
goals
(SDG)
of
quality
education
and
gender
equality.
“We’ll
have
wide-ranging
topics
that
will
be
covered
in
schools
as
part
of
this
programme
in
our
continued
efforts
to
build
a
gender-equal
world,”
principal
secretary,
school
education
secretary
department,
Bishnupada
Sethi
said.