Published on 05.04.2023
There is an urgent need to ensure schools are gender friendly and the school environment does not promote gender prejudice. Towards this purpose, there is an urgent need to conduct gender audits, revise school textbooks, and provide teachers training to create gender-inclusive learning environments. A gender lens also needs to be applied to infrastructure and facilities on the school campus. For example, although the school may bring uniformity in the dress’s colour code, the type of dress should be left to students. In addition, the curriculum advisory committee, curriculum drafting committee, and textbook committees of different subjects constituted by SCERT should have a gender balance in their composition. The study conducted by the Centre for Socio-economic and Environmental Studies, Kochi, makes several suggestions to make schools in Kerala gender friendly. Discussions on making schools gender friendly usually revolved around school uniforms. However, in Kerala, several issues in schools require immediate attention.
The research indicates limited space for interaction between boys and girls, even in co-educational schools in Kerala. Strict gender norms determine friendship among students. For instance, even when commuting to school, students move into gender segregated groups. Interaction within the school, seating arrangements and how they spend time during class intervals or lunch breaks are mainly in gender segregated groups. Gender-mixed groups are an exception. Students also indicated how peer groups impose gender norms if a boy or girl tends to be very friendly towards each other.
It is time to rethink how schools could help students to reach their full potential and break stereotypes. There should be an increased effort to make education and learning activities in gender-mixed groups and encourage more interaction between students from different gender. This should cover curricular and co-curricular activities such as cultural programmes, Kalolsavam, sports, games, school assemblies and activities of various clubs in the school.
Gender stereotypes can be broken or reinforced by teachers’ words, actions, guidance, and messages. Students frequently described stereotyped behaviour, such as not allowing girls and boys to interact within the school premises. Only limited classroom activities enable boys and girls to work together, regardless of whether they attend aided or government schools. When students are grouped into teams for various activities in the school, they are usually formed as gender segregated groups.
There also exists gender differences in assigning activities in the class. For example, teachers assign several activities to the students, like writing on the chalkboard, collecting completed records and homework, etc. However, when it comes to some immediate assistance teachers require, like a laptop/projector, in the computer/science labs, purchasing chart papers/chalks, and sound and technical support during events, boys are always the preferred choice.
Boy students frequently lead and dominate various co-curricular classroom activities assigned by teachers in many high schools and higher secondary schools. Girl students, on the other hand, are entrusted with curriculum related activities. In addition, teachers prefer to delegate boys tasks that require them to go to a public space.
The lack of gender friendliness in schools is also visible in the school rules and duties assigned to students. For instance, in conducting school assembly, the majority of the students reported that while girls are the ones singing prayer songs, boys are assigned the duties of rendering pledges and thought of the day. However, what is more, problematic is how such gender roles in assigning duties in school assemblies are justified, as it is better to listen to girls singing prayer songs.
A similar pattern is noticeable in other duties assigned to students in the school. Say, for instance, cleaning the classrooms. Although in several schools, all students are expected to be involved in classroom cleaning, in most cases, it is done by girls. The boys’ role is restricted to arranging benches and desks before or after cleaning. It emerges that stereotypical gender roles operate strongly in schools. It is interesting to note that teachers, in most cases, do not accept the existence of gender stereotyping in classrooms even while they narrate such classroom interactions. Teachers do not recognise it as gender bias or stereotyping.
Teachers have a significant role in creating gender-inclusive learning environments. Teachers, being the products of the society they live in, may carry the baggage of the gender norms of their community. The teaching practices are influenced by their assumptions and stereotypes of gender, which can affect the students’ beliefs and attitudes. The state should take the initiative to support teachers to become more gender sensitive in classrooms and outside. Therefore, there is a need for professional development and educator resources to create an inclusive learning environment for all students, including girls, transgender and gender non-conforming students. The gender sensitisation training should enhance the capability of existing teachers to overcome gender biases and gender stereotyping in classroom management, curriculum transaction and teacher-student interactions. Teachers should also be trained to be sensitive to identifying abuse situations and how to address such issues. This necessitates including a course on gender and education in teacher education courses such as TTI and B.Ed, and M.Ed. Mandatory in-service training on this aspect shall be provided for teachers already in service.
The school management and administration should ensure that the rights of transgender and gender non-conforming students are protected and the schools promote an inclusive learning environment for them. Children who experience victimisation related to their sexual orientation or gender expression will likely demonstrate low academic performance or discontinue studies.
Infrastructure in schools needs to be made gender friendly. This is particularly true concerning toilets, sick rooms, and facilities for sports and games. While there are sufficient toilets in most schools, their poor maintenance is a significant concern. For example, in some schools, unclean toilets, absence of handwash/soap, sanitary napkin vending machines and incinerators for disposing of napkins are issues that lead to absenteeism or loss of instructional time, especially among girls during menstruation. In addition, in many schools, privacy is not ensured in boys’ toilets. Urgent attention needs to be placed on improving the school infrastructure to make it gender friendly and to ensure the safety of students. There are several schools which do not even have a boundary wall.
Necessary provisions shall be incorporated in the Kerala Education Rules (KER) to ensure that all co-educational schools have gender inclusive infrastructure. In addition, the annual school inspection should have a component for assessing the availability of such facilities and their proper maintenance. In countries like the U.K. and Sweden, school inspections assess whether the school provides an inclusive environment for boys and girls. Yet another urgent issue is the lack of facilities for the student’s physical education and physical activities. For example, it is found that girl students have minimal exposure to games and sports.
Discussions with students also indicated how they feel uncomfortable in their uniform, particularly for girls students. They complained how their uniform—kurta, churidar and dupatta- restricts their physical activity in the school. As noted earlier, a few schools in Kerala have adopted gender neutral uniforms. In our opinion, while the school may bring uniformity in the colour code of the dress, the choice of the type of dress should be left to students as is followed in the dress code for lawyers. Women lawyers can wear a saree, churidar or pants and shirt in courts, and the choice is left to the individual. Instead of insisting on any rigid format, students should be provided with different options for uniforms. Students could then choose a comfortable uniform to perform school activities, including participation in sports, games and cultural activities.
There are no appropriate forums in high school and higher secondary schools to create awareness among the students on adolescents’ health and provide them with sex education. In addition, most students complained of teachers being reluctant to teach chapters on reproduction. Therefore, there is an urgent need to provide age-specific sexuality education in schools to develop and strengthen the ability of children and young people to make conscious, healthy and respectful choices regarding relationships, sexuality and emotional and physical health. The frameworks developed by UN agencies titled International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education, and the one by the International Planned Parenthood Federation (2010) will provide a strong base for such an initiative.
The education system in the state should recognise that children, irrespective of gender, are aware of biological processes such as menstruation and different sexual orientations and gendered experiences. The schools should organise discussions around such topics, which could help the students become sensitive to other genders’ bodies and experiences. Some teachers who were found to be gender sensitive reported that they could not put their ideas into practice due to non-cooperation from other teachers and the general apathy of the parents and school administration.
The study finds a gap between the content of the curriculum and delivery in the case of topics related to reproduction. According to students, teachers often skip this section or vaguely explain the concepts, resulting in students failing to understand the topic of reproduction properly. On the other hand, many teachers admitted they are not equipped to handle such classes effectively. It may also be because of the culturally imposed silence in Kerala society on sexuality that the teachers are reluctant to transact this topic. Irrespective of the reasons, there is a need to strengthen the curriculum transaction relating to reproduction and sexuality. State Council for Educational Research & Training (SCERT) may develop a toolkit for transacting classes on reproduction. To make the transaction effective, audio-visual aids may also be employed. Moreover, such issues should be discussed in the teacher training programmes and teacher groups.
The school management and administration should ensure that the rights of transgender and gender non-conforming students are protected and the schools promote an inclusive learning environment for them. Children who experience victimisation related to their sexual orientation or gender expression will likely demonstrate low academic performance or discontinue studies. It can also affect their mental health. Therefore, the state should develop guidelines to ensure that schools are friendly towards them.
There is an urgent need to improve counselling facilities for adolescent students. Currently, such facilities are nonexistent or done sporadically. As a result, the counsellor’s capacity to achieve better counselling results must also be enhanced.
Textbooks play an important role in challenging or confirming traditional gender roles. This could be through their language or visuals to communicate the text. For the same reason, it is important to conduct a gender audit of school textbooks. Urgent attention needs to be placed on improving the school infrastructure to make it gender friendly and to ensure the safety of students. There is also a need for auditing the teaching materials. It is important to ensure that the curriculum, textbooks and teaching materials are inclusive for transgender and gender non-conforming students.
Gender should be a crucial consideration while selecting books for the library. Stories, poems, novels by well-known female and male authors, books on the inspiring lives of female social activists and scientists, and stories, poems, and novels that defy gender stereotypes must be consciously included. The guidelines for purchasing books in the school library should also consider this aspect.
Gender Audit of School Textbooks
Textbooks play an important role in challenging or confirming traditional gender roles. A gender audit of the social sciences textbook used in classes 8,9 and 10 was also undertaken as part of the study. Content analysis indicates that women’s representation in social sciences textbooks is very low. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual and more (LGBTQIA+) communities are almost entirely ignored. Textbooks need to be revised to make them balanced in the representation of gender and the use of gender inclusive terms and language.
School curricula and textbooks should be reviewed for gender bias and gender sensitivity before they are published. Gender-neutral terms and pronouns would aid students in avoiding gender bias from a young age. The contributions of women are underrepresented in textbook content, which needs to be corrected. As textbook content and visual representation have a role in challenging the traditional gender roles of power and relationship, it is crucial to undertake gender audits of school textbooks of all classes and subjects. There is also a need for auditing the teaching materials. It is important to ensure that the curriculum, textbooks, and teaching materials are inclusive for transgender and gender non-conforming students.
As part of the study, a gender audit was conducted of the Social Science textbooks from classes 8 to 10 under the Kerala State syllabus published by the State Council of Educational Research and Training. It was observed that the frequency of using men and women characters, pronouns, and names (both visual and text) shows more male representation in all three classes. If we analyse visual representation, male-female representation in the 8th standard textbook is 84-53, in the 9th standard textbook 144-53 and the 10th standard textbook 171-59. If we analyse the text male-female reference in the 8th standard textbook is 175-16, 266-56, and 386-66 in the 8th, 9th and 10th standards, respectively. This is also true concerning famous personalities in 8th standard 14-8, in 9th standard 167-14 and n 10th standard 322-22 the male female representation.
For example, the 8th standard social science textbook, Chapter 4, “Our Government”, refers to several male politicians. However, there is no reference to India’s first woman Prime minister, Smt. Indira Gandhi, or first woman president of India, Smt. Pratibha Patil. Even when reference is made to contributions to different fields, the name of women are missing out. Ignoring women’s achievements can negatively impact how students reflect and relate to gender identities and roles. Students may unknowingly develop a notion that women have only a limited role in economics and politics.
Language plays an essential role in making an individual’s worldview from a young age. Gender inclusive language aids in avoiding bias, discrimination or demeaning different gender identities. Using words such as ‘man-made’ or ‘layman’ as representative terms for human beings shows how man is considered the norm and generic while women are considered different or other. For example, a student seeing words such as chairman or policeman might understand that they are occupation roles restricted to only men. Even when women are assigned an occupational role like a doctor, a group of female doctors often look at how a senior male doctor treats a patient.
Gender audit of social science textbooks from classes 8 to 10 indicates a pattern of more male representation. Of course, some efforts to make textbooks more gender-balanced were also identified during the review. For instance, in the 10th standard Social Science textbook (Part 1, Chapter 3, p.54), a quote from Gandhi given as extra reading material had female pronouns in brackets to make the quote more inclusive and directed to a broader audience. Similarly, Chapter 5 (p.98) is an extra reading about Madame Bhikaji Cama, one of the leading freedom fighters. This can also be seen as a positive attempt to bring about more representation amidst the alarmingly low female representation rate in the section related to history.
School curricula and textbooks should be reviewed for gender bias and gender sensitivity and revised before publication. Gender-neutral terms and pronouns would aid students in avoiding gender bias from a young age. Gender audit of the textbooks followed in Anganwadis’ in Kerala have highlighted how gender stereotypes are promoted by portraying different gender identities in the textbooks, in the case of occupational roles, non-occupational roles, and general actions.
Gender should be a crucial consideration while selecting books for the library. Stories, poems, novels by well-known female and male authors, books on the inspiring lives of female social activists and scientists, and stories, poems, and novels that defy gender stereotypes must be consciously included.
The school management and administration should ensure that the rights of transgender and gender non-conforming students are protected and the schools promote an inclusive learning environment for them.
SCERT may initiate pilot projects on gender-responsive curriculum transactions and classroom management involving teachers with egalitarian views on gender.
For more details, contact: Dr. Rakkee Thimothy; Mob- +919873101227, rakkeethimothy@gmail.com (Fellow, CSES)