IAWS 2020: Thoughts, Learnings, and Takeaways

Take-aways from the IAWS conference 2020 (27^th-31^st January), the theme of which was constitutional principles in 21^st century India: visions for emancipation.      

  

Scholars, activists, practitioners and others interested in gender, law, and society had gathered over the four days at the National Law University, Delhi. Project Kal participated in the sub-theme on women, employment and education, where we presented our paper titled Finding the Missing Men: Reframing Gender Equality Policy and Practice and engaged with other papers under the sub-theme.

Opening Conversations

One of the objectives of the conference was to link academia and activism. The symbiotic relationship between intellectual scholarship and activism was acknowledged. That gender discrimination exists in access to nutrition, healthcare, education, and employment has been normalised. What has also been normalised is sexual violence against women and girls. Few cases of such violence come to light- either due to the determination of the survivor, or identity of the survivor (as an urban, middle class woman as in the case of Delhi in 2012 and Hyderabad in 2020). Perhaps the majority of sexual violence- within homes, workplaces- is invisible yet well-known.

Reimagining Gender Roles?

Support for ‘women’s empowerment’ has not been at the cost of male privilege. So, while there has been a change in women’s roles, men’s roles have remained static, leading to doubling of female responsibilities. One of papers explored this ‘superwoman phenomenon’ where women are expected to excel in both their productive and reproductive roles. One of the factors that leads to such a pressure is the notion that children (and the household) are primarily the mother’s responsibility. Another paper looked into the statistical invisibility of unpaid work of women, based on a study in the Indian state of Tripura.

Access to education- the starting point or the destination?

Gender-specific reasons for dropouts were discussed by a paper that emphasised that education shall only be instrumental in achieving gender parity if the curriculum includes gender sensitisation on biases, roles and attitudes. Another paper viewed education as a contradictory resource that instils greater confidence in girls (and boys) but also pulls them into the circle of inequality, without adequate employment opportunities.

Gender-neutral finance?

One of the papers examined the false assumption that budgets are gender-neutral such that they have the same impact for males and females. It called for a need for gender budgeting not just on policy documents but also in the implementation plans.

Gender Auditing of Textbooks

Papers that studied textbook content from a gender lens revealed that it leaves a lot to desired. Although all education policies in the country view education as a tool for social change, to bring in gender equality, the intent is not being followed-up in the teaching learning materials. There is evidence of gender biases in textbooks across national and state boards. This is an area that merits both research and programmatic interventions.

Opening up the Conversation

The conference was a very engaging, insightful and interesting experience, largely due to the diversity of its participants. What it did reinforce for us at Project Kal was that there is a strong need to engage with boys and men, issues around masculinities for an effective conversation that reaches beyond such gatherings of conscious and interested participants. And education, as was agreed upon by all, is a powerful instrument to initiate that conversation.

This piece was first published on Project Kal's website and can be accessed at- https://projectkal.org/our-voice/2020/3/2/iaws-2020-thoughts-learnings-and-takeaways. 

Hyderabad Case: Hold the man accountable

The country has seen protests and public outrage after four men allegedly raped and murdered a woman on the outskirts of the city of Hyderabad. After unsettling details of the crime were revealed, there have been conversations in the media and in public about the timing of the crime, seclusion of the site, breakdown of the woman’s vehicle, consumption of alcohol by the perpetrators, the woman’s phone call to her sister, among other facts. There have been remarks made on what could have been done by the woman and what should be done by other women who step out of their homes and face threat of such incidents. Little is being said about the alleged perpetrators and the underlying mindset that made them carry out the heinous crime. The question we are evading here is how the four men thought it would be alright to even touch a woman without her consent, let along brutally raping and killing her.

Our response to the incident has been as problematic as the attitude that gives rise to such gender-based violent behaviour. In expressing our anger, we made social media hashtags with the woman’s name, in absolute violation of the Supreme Court’s directive to refrain from revealing the identity of the victim. Notwithstanding the SC directive, the tendency to focus on the woman rather than on the men who carried out the crime is commonplace. News headlines that read similar to ‘Woman doctor raped in Hyderabad’ were seen more than headlines like ‘Four men held for rape and murder’. Both may mean the same, but they carry different meanings. Placing women at the centre of public attention in crimes not committed by them converges with the larger societal norm of placing women under scrutiny while letting men be free and not holding them accountable for their actions. Debates and discussions that followed the incident analysed the rates of crimes against women, feeling of fear among women, and ranked cities and public spaces based on their ‘safety index’. Women were asked about how safe they feel on the streets and in the night. Men, four of whom carried out the criminal offence, were kept out of the conversation. Also kept out of the conversation was the deep-seated patriarchy and sexism that gives legitimacy to such acts of gender-based violence.

A fourteen-point directive was issued by the Telangana police for women, girls and anybody travelling. While the intent may be well-meaning, the message it conveys is flawed at multiple levels. One, it yet again puts the onus of safety on girls and women. The larger message given is to girls and women to be more cautious, more vigilant, more prepared to face any such incident once they step out on to the streets, as though public spaces are not meant for them. In a society where there is no girl or women who doesn’t feel a sense of fear as soon as she steps on to the street, asking them to ‘stay safe’ and ‘be vigilant’ is not just downright insensitive but also discriminatory. It is high time that we acknowledge that incidents of rape and sexual violence do not happen because the woman was not vigilant or the place was unsafe. They solely happen because some men find it acceptable to force themselves on women, perhaps viewing the latter as objects rather than human beings.

Why men act in gender-violent ways, how they feel about their status vis-à-vis women, what they think about the consequences of their actions, and when they begin to acquire the assumption that women are subordinate to them and that they can force their will on women are questions that must be asked now.

In a country where only one in four rape cases ends in conviction, and reporting rate of such cases is even lower, calling for stronger punitive action will not solve the problem. A multi-pronged conversation with boys and men across age groups, social and economic identities and geographies needs to be initiated that addresses the root cause of gender-based violence. We must begin with young boys at homes and in schools and give them lessons in gender equality and mutual respect before they become men who have internalised that they are superior to women and that they can do as they please. For men who have crossed the threshold of formal education, it is time we bring them to rethink on what it means to ‘be a man’ and hold them accountable for their actions. Collective outrage against rape shall not hold much value if we do not follow it up with sustained, long-term interventions in changing gender-unequal mindsets and attitudes.  

 This piece was first published in the Hindustan Times on December 8, 2019 and can be accessed here-https://www.hindustantimes.com/analysis/it-s-not-the-woman-s-fault-hold-the-man-accountable-opinion/story-yv0z7BlQvONWUyI3PtzbqJ.html

Reviewing the Gender Strategy of the Draft National Education Policy 2019

 The draft National Education Policy 2019 has a gender strategy; albeit an incomplete one.

The recently released draft National Education Policy 2019 has equity as one of its founding goals and gender envisioned as a cross-cutting theme. Yet, a closer look at its recommendations, proposed equity-inducing initiatives, and use of vocabulary renders its intent of establishing gender equality weak and vague. The draft NEP is guilty of envisioning gender equality by focusing on female students, with a brief discussion of including transgender children in schools, and a conspicuous absence of any mention of male students vis-à-vis gender in education. The fact that boys too grow up with a gendered identity, rooted in notions of masculinity and superiority over other genders, seems to have been ignored if not negated.

Closing the gender gap has been envisioned by increasing access to education for girls, ensuring their safety, lack of discrimination. Interventions to systemically and systematically create gender-sensitive and gender-equal mindsets of boys have been missed.

The section on gender sensitisation in schools, that entails a mandate to conduct awareness sessions on gender issues to break stereotyped gender roles, on the importance of harassment-free environments and equal treatment of genders, and on legal protections and entitlements for girls and women, makes no reference to the need to undo the constant socialisation of young boys to acquire traits of ‘strength’ and ‘masculinity’. The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) that has been put in place for sexual offences against children- not limited to any particular gender- has been interpreted as a legal protection for girls and women.

The emphasis on ensuring safety and security of girls attending school is a much-needed step. So is the effort to get transgender children to schools. However, these are rudimentary steps. They cannot be the only major policy directives to establish gender equality in education.  While the draft policy speaks of efforts to give girls equal access to education by addressing societal obstacles, it stays silent on the role of boys and men in establishing a gender equal education system. It fails to acknowledge that boys are systematically socialised into becoming men who assume superiority and authority over other genders, and that their education has a role to play in this process. The draft talks of having female role models for girls, in order to strengthen their ambition and change societal mindsets of women’s role. This is a step that has a potential to have a positive rippling effect, with females getting encouragement from one another while setting an example in front of the society. A similar thought about having male role models for boys, setting an example of gender sensitivity and practising respect for all genders, did not cross the mind of makers of this draft.

The only mention of boys in the section of gender equality is on the suggestion to have schools and social workers talk to parents on placing financial expectations on boys pre-maturely. The behaviour and attitude of boys vis-à-vis other genders has not been addressed in the draft. Promoting gender equality through programmes specifically targeted towards boys, along with those targeted towards girls and transgenders, is amiss. Consent finds a faint mention in the section on sex education as a part of the draft policy’s basic health and safety training. How it is going to be imparted, when, and by whom is left unanswered.

Boys and men have been excluded from the narrative on gender equality and inclusive education by the draft NEP. The question then is- how do we expect the problem of gender inequality to be solved by solely looking at girls and occasionally at transgenders?

The issue is in fact not just part of the draft NEP; it is part of regular conversations and initiatives around gender equality. The presumption that gender-based discrimination and gender inequality can be addressed by focusing on women and solely on women is rather widespread. Gender issues are equated to what some of us erroneously term ‘women’s issues. Seminars and conferences on gender equality often end up becoming occasions where women talk to women about women. While such women-to-women conversations are much needed, they cannot be expected to resolve the gigantic issue of gender inequality. Men and boys need to be included in the narrative. They too have a gender. And more so because they have been identified as a part of the problem, it is only natural to have them part of the solution.

Moreover, a document that speaks of gender as a cross-cutting theme for all aspects of policy implementation has apparently not been reviewed for gender biases in its language. On the first page of the draft NEP, the message from the Minister for Human Resource Development, talks about one of the objectives of the NEP “to eliminate the shortage of manpower in science, technology, academics and industry”. The choice of the term manpower among a range of gender-neutral terms like workforce or human capital or human resources is contradictory to the spirit of ‘equity’ invoked in a subsequent paragraph of the same message. A policy draft that has references to gender sensitivity and gender-neutral language has a Chairman instead of a Chairperson at its helm. The creation of a gender-inclusion fund is expected to build capacity to provide quality and equitable education to all girls. This makes it inconsistent with its own label. The fund’s aim of providing equitable education cannot be restricted to girls, if it were to be called a gender-inclusion fund. The reason for excluding transgenders and boys from receiving equitable education with the help of this fund is confounding. Going by the pillars of this fund as it stands currently, it would be more appropriate to label it as a girls-inclusion fund. 

While this is the draft of the NEP and thus open to modifications, it is hoped that the final text of the policy supports its promise of equity and gender equality in education more sincerely and consciously. The NEP envisions an impact on what children, for at least the next two decades, learn. It is thus critical that its voice on gender equality in education does not emanate from an exclusion of any gender that shall push the realisation of a gender-equal educational and social order further away from the foreseeable future.

This piece was first published in the Hindustan Times on July 19, 2019 and can be accessed here- https://www.hindustantimes.com/editorials/the-draft-nep-has-a-gender-strategy-but-it-s-an-incomplete-one/story-BzJETdmz1V6uaMiiAt64HO.html

Promoting Gender Equality in/through School – A Road Map for South Asia

The Status Quo-

While incidents of rape, sexual harassment, and gender-based violence have become commonplace today, they rest on a deep-rooted structure of patriarchy and gender inequality. This structural feature is given great prominence by society and its many institutions. From the time a child is born, gender inequality has a strong influence. From homes to schools and thereon, codes of conduct set out for girls and boys are unequal and premised on an assumption of superiority and domination of males over females. These are subsequently internalised by children to grow up to perpetuate gender-unequal behaviours.

If we are to arrest this problem of gender-based violence, the focus must be on tackling gender inequality. As we saw in the previous part of our two-part blog, some schools and educational authorities have taken steps to address gender inequality and consequently promote gender equality. They have met with considerable success, especially given the mammoth scale of the problem.

A Call for Action-

For the South Asian region, where son-preference, the phenomenon of ‘missing women’, and increasing incidents of gender-based violence are becoming rampant and even normalised, such measures are desperately needed. Promoting gender equality in/through schools needs to be embedded in the practice of education and transmitted to the next generation of adults. In the second part of our two-part blog on promoting gender equality through schools, we shall outline changes/reforms that would be needed to operationalise the recommended initiatives we discussed in the first part. Here are a few macro-level reform strategies that may be considered-

1. Pan-country commitment to gender-aware and gender-equal curricula

A concerted attempt at promoting gender equality would require a strong commitment on part of governments in the region. Political will to establish cooperation and solidarity with provincial/state educational ministries to work towards elimination of gender inequality through schools could have a strong positive impact and give this initiative a much-needed national vigour. Inter-ministerial collaboration, for example among the education, women’s welfare, and finance ministries- to chart out policies and programmes aimed at increasing gender awareness in schools, gender sensitive curriculum, apportioning funds for the same would be critical. Sharing of data in the form of baseline study reports, identification of changes needed in the curricula, and creating procedural framework to make it gender-aware would be required too.

2. Compulsory consent classes in every school- government and private

Consent is a basic yet very important code of conduct – a No means No and only a Yes means Yes –  making students understand the importance of consent is of prime importance. Having consent classes in schools might seem a small initiative but the results would go a long way in instilling gender equality into the consciousness of students. A consent class every week involving both girls and boys; arranging activities/role plays in understanding consent could be effective in changing the attitudes and thought processes of students.

3. Teacher training programmes to include a mandatory course on ‘how to promote gender-equal classrooms’

Teachers form the linchpin of the school system through their role in driving classroom interactions and working closely with students. Therefore, their involvement is paramount when it comes to an attempt to bring about attitudinal and behavioral change in students. It would be imperative to target teacher training in order to ensure gender-equal education for students. Teacher education programmes currently being run in almost all countries in the region must entail a critical component of promoting gender equality in classrooms. An assessment to indicate basic level of gender awareness and knowledge on how to ensure gender equal classrooms would be a prerequisite to getting the job of a teacher. For those already working as teachers, mandatory in-service trainings would be needed.

4. Anti-sexual harassment cell in every educational institution- primary, secondary, and higher educational institutions

To report cases of sexual harassment faced by students and staff members and ensure support to a complainant in filing the report with the police, through legal proceedings, and seeking any medical help, anti-sexual harassment cells need to be constituted in every educational institution. Although such cells exist in some higher educational institutions, they need to be further strengthened and also be set up in schools and colleges where they don’t currently exist. These cells would work in coordination with local police officials so that a mechanism of redressal is established.

5. Gender awareness sessions for parents on understanding prevailing gender inequalities and addressing them at home

Home is the most important learning centre for anyone. School kids who are still in their early learning/developing phase and by default have not much of their own independent thinking, tend to pick habits and attitudes from their family members specially from parents. Therefore, it is extremely important for parents to be gender sensitive and aware of the discriminatory gender roles and biases. Schools could organise such sessions for parents at the start of each academic year or incorporate them when parents come for parent-teacher meetings.

6. Workshops for school non-teaching staff on creating a safe and gender-equal environment for students

The environment in school is not just made up of the principal and teachers; non-teaching staff play a major role too. Students tend to spend quite a proportion of their school time outside classrooms – waiting at school gates for their parents to pick them up, interacting with non-teaching staff during break, school functions and so on. Hence, training non-teaching staff is equally important for the creation of a safer and gender sensitive environment in school.

To Note –

Each of these strategies will have to be contextualised in terms of language and terms used, pedagogy and training tools used to explain concepts such as gender and patriarchy, highlight how gender inequality is manifested in that particular society, ways to deal with the same.

Monitoring and Evaluation

For these policy reforms and initiatives to meet success in changing the status quo of gender inequality, it is critical that there is a mechanism of continuous monitoring and evaluation in place. Here, we suggest some ways to assess the impact of gender equality-promoting measures-

1. Participant feedback

To monitor the outcomes of these proposed strategies from time to time, feedback from students could be taken in the form of quizzes on gender roles, tests on gender biases, interactive questioning on ‘what I would do in this situation’- on situations pertaining to gender-based inequality/harassment/violence/non-consensual interactions.

2. Teacher assessment

Teachers must be assessed for their classroom engagements and whether they are working towards eliminating gender inequality in their classes. This could be done through random classroom observation sessions, anonymously recorded student inputs, regular meetings among the principal and teachers on steps taken in each class to create a conducive environment for both boys and girls.

3. School-wise gender reports

Every school could come up with an annual report detailing the steps it has taken to address gender inequality and promote gender equality. This would document the ratio of male to female students in the school, activities conducted by the school on gender-based issues, initiatives in individual classes to promote gender equality, statistics on assessments of students and teachers, and a few testimonials of students and teachers on the changes brought about in their school as regards gender equality. There could be a section on whether the school has organised any outreach activities with the outside community to leverage its influence on parents and the larger society to promote gender equality.

4. Gender Audits

To assess the extent to which gender equality has been effectively adopted in policies, programmes, and initiatives in the country, gender audits could be conducted. This would give each country in the region a clear idea of where they stand in terms of their progress towards gender equality. Alternatively, gender audits could be conducted through a regional body like SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation). The Education Security and Culture as well as the Social Affairs wings of SAARC could take up the responsibility of overseeing the gender audit. This is likely to achieve a more objective audit than countries conducting their own audits.

To conclude

When schools and governments pledge working towards gender-equal education, it won’t be a service to women and girls; it would be a service to their society, their country, and their future.

This piece was co-written with Mehrin Shah and was first published on the LSE International Development Blog and can be accessed here https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/internationaldevelopment/2019/02/19/promoting-gender-equality-in-through-school-a-road-map-for-south-asia/.

Promoting gender equality in/through schools – examples to learn from

Education and Gender Equality- Interconnections

There is a lot in common between education and gender equality- both are instrumental to the development of a society as also intrinsic to living in a society and interacting with fellow beings. Yet, as is the case in many contexts, one functions to the detriment of the other. Education, as is imparted in many institutions and systems, works not just to impede gender equality, but also actively promote gender inequality. Whether comments like- ‘She is quite good at Maths for a girl!’, ‘He is so uninterested in sports- unlike regular boys’, or reinforcement of gender norms such as ‘girls don’t laugh so hard’ or ‘boys don’t cry’, or in some cases segregating seating arrangements in classrooms according to students’ gender- the ways in which gender inequality is perpetuated in schools are many.

In schools, both girls and boys are under continuous surveillance by their teachers and school staff, but girls are particularly grilled and their behavior and appearance are frequently judged – girls should not be loud, should have fine manners, should have clipped fingernails and so on. Consequently, girls tend to contribute less to discussions and ask fewer questions in order to lessen the risk of attracting attention. Furthermore, this negatively affects their zest for learning. As a result of this attitude towards girls at schools, they tend to behave and act more in accordance with the prevailing gender norms and roles and grow up to internalise them.

To stop the perpetuation of gender inequality through schools as well as to address its existence in the society at large, initiatives to promote gender equality in and through schools are imperative. Schools have enormous potential to effect change in gender relations, views and practices vis-a-vis gender, and create a gender-sensitive and gender-equal generation of men and women.

Harnessing the potential of education as a change agent- Examples

The first part of our two-part blog looks at initiatives in education systems that have begun to harness this potential. We shall briefly discuss each example by looking at the nature of the initiative, successes achieved, and learnings to be drawn. We shall then think about the South Asian context and whether such initiatives are needed there.

1. Consent classes – Kenya

In classes organised in Nairobi by an organisation called No Means No Worldwide since 2009, girls are taught to say “No” and are given training in self-defense. With an aim to bring about a generational change, young boys are trained to change their perspectives on gender and are given lessons on ‘positive masculinity’. For instance, they are taught to intervene when they find a girl in trouble.

There has been reported success of this initiative in the form of reduction of incidences of sexual harassment by 50%. Moreover, participants challenged socially embedded stereotypes and myths about gender and sexual assault. Most boys, who had come to believe socially embedded myths that it was okay to rape women who were taken on expensive dates, wore revealing clothes or were out alone at night, were reported to have changed their minds after attending these classes. They were also able to identify sexually inappropriate behaviour rather quickly and intervened in such incidents. To sustain these positive changes, trainings were followed-up with subsequent sessions and refresher trainings.

Primary learnings– Context-based curriculum design; identifying specific needs of boys and girls and targeting the programme to ensure effectiveness among both sets of participants.

2. Gender-aware curricula – Turkey

Turkey’s  “2008-2013 National Action Plan for Gender Equality” and the “Form of Gender Equality Attitude of Higher Education Council” state that the issue of gender inequality must be included in the curriculum of various undergraduate and graduate programs of the faculties of Education – to make the curriculum gender sensitive. Based on the orders given by the National Action Plan and Higher Education Council, the curriculum was then revised and is now based on interactive teaching techniques and pedagogies which are gender sensitive.

Another project, funded by the European Union and the Government of Turkey and known as “Promoting Gender Equality in Education”, aims at promoting gender equality throughout the schools of Turkey by aiding the ministry of education and schools to assess the schools’ capacity to create a safe environment and curriculum for learning devoid of gender biases. This project entails multiple efforts to make schools gender-neutral – developing tools to make the educational system sensitive to gender inequality, reviewing educational policies, curricula and textbooks and drawing recommendations, conducting sessions on gender equality to bring awareness in the society. Around 98% of the female educators who were a part of this project have stated that their association with this project have made them aware of the suitable attitude that a teacher should adopt in order to make the school environment gender sensitive.

Primary learnings– Gender-sensitive pedagogies, eliminating gender bias from education systems, making school gender neutral, teachers as change-agents

3. Period boxes – India

In response to a question by two 13-year-old girls’ on why there had been no discussion on periods in school, their teacher convened an interaction in class on menstruation. There were many questions asked (especially by the boys), experiences shared, and the girls showed sanitary napkins to their male classmates. The discussion, led by girls, culminated into a collective decision of placing a ‘period box’ in the classroom. This box is stocked with sanitary napkins, tissues, and candies. When the girls took turns to take responsibility the box, parents of boys protested against the exclusion of boys from sharing the responsibility. The practice was also adopted by other classes of the school.

Although the initiative exists in one or perhaps few schools in the country, it is a practice worth replicating. Acknowledging the importance of biological processes such as menstruation and having conversations around them is a step towards creating spaces where men and women can coexist with each other while being sensitive to each others’ bodies and experiences.

Primary learnings– Opening up classrooms to conversations about menstruation and related issues; mutual sharing of gendered experiences among boys and girls; taking measures to enable a conducive environment for girls and boys alike.

4. Policies forbidding gender discrimination in textbooks – Thailand

In response to findings worldwide regarding the importance of educational units being influential in shaping the behaviors of students, various countries have taken measures. On a policy level, Thailand is among those few countries which have instituted practices forbidding discrimination based on gender in textbooks and curriculum – particular directives are provided to eliminate the gender stereotypes and textbooks are taken under revisions all over the country. The aim is to go beyond equal access to schools, towards achieving equality within schools.

Primary learnings– Acknowledging and addressing gender discrimination in textbooks, policy directives to eliminate gender inequality in curricula

The South Asian Case

We shall now turn to the South Asia and explore the need to bring in such practices in schools and education systems in the region.

South Asian countries have a deep-rooted structure of gender inequality to combat- patriarchy is embedded in the lived experiences of people. Be it discriminatory practices that begin even before a child’s birth, or, differential access to educational and economic opportunities, or, unequal marriages or, non-consensual pregnancies, or, gender biases at the workplace, or, gender-based violence in public and private spheres- gender inequality assumes a status of normalcy in most parts of the South Asian region. Part of this inequality is statistically represented in terms of gender gap in indicators of health, literacy, economic participation. Much of the inequality is not. For example, even the female population that has been able to get access to education does not escape gender-based discrimination or violence. To put it differently, even the male population that gets educated does not acquire gender awareness or practice gender equality. This points to a component that is lacking within the education practice of the region- gender equality. Gender-equal education is needed at the level of regional cooperation initiatives, national policies, in-school programmes, and classroom engagements

This piece was co-authored with Mehrin Shah and was first published on the LSE Department of International Development Blog on 12th February 2019. It is the first of a two-part blog on promoting gender equality in/through schools. 

(https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/internationaldevelopment/2019/02/12/promoting-gender-equality-in-through-schools-examples-to-learn-from/)

Combating the learning crisis in South Asia

Amongst a range of development challenges that South Asian countries face is that of poor education – both in terms of literacy rates and quality of education imparted to those counted as ‘literate’.  While governments are attempting to increase literacy levels in their respective countries through policy interventions for improved infrastructure and greater access to schools, they seem to have progressed much less in addressing the learning crisis that has enveloped most of the South Asia today.

The present scenario of education in South Asia  

In May 2018, UNICEF noted that only about half of primary-aged children currently receive education with minimum learning standards. Looking into the micro picture further reveals the dismal state of education in the region. According to the World Development Report 2018, India topped the list of countries where a grade two student could not perform two-digit subtraction and was ranked second in the list of countries where a grade two student could not read a single word of a short text. As per a World Bank Policy Research Working Paper published in 2006, less than 20% of children in Pakistan are capable of comprehending a simple paragraph, with most of them not being able to write a simple sentence with a word like “school” in the national language of the country.

While these statistics give an initial peek into the state of learning in these countries, a closer look at the education priorities of South Asian governments reveal that ‘learning outcomes’ have a rather peripheral status. The focus of most governments is on access, enrolment, and completion rates. There is a lack of adequate measurement of learning outcomes. For example, in Bangladesh only 1 in 12 performance indicators set by the government targets learning. The evaluation of the Education For All initiative in Nepal revealed an absence of mechanisms to monitor classroom environments and progress in learning levels. Other countries in the region including Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Bhutan have reported low levels of learning despite relative increase in literacy rates. Maldives, despite an impressive literacy rate of 98%, faces challenges in terms of quality. According to a UNICEF report, untrained teachers, regional inequality in teaching standards, emphasis on rote-learning, and gender-bias in curricula are some of the problems that this almost universally literate country faces.

Contributing factors to the learning crisis

In this section, we attempt to flag some of the factors that have led to this learning crisis in the region. First, learning is not given prominence in policies and strategies to improve education. Rising the share of education budgets in countries like Pakistan and Nepal accompanied by a persistent lack of learning quality bears testimony to the neglect of the ‘learning’ aspect of education. In India, despite regular alarms raised by the Annual Status of Education Reports regarding low learning levels, the country has not seen any significant success in changing the status quo.

Second, the role of teachers in the learning process is not paid enough attention. Teachers are supposed to not just be subject experts but also ensure that students from various socio-economic backgrounds are integrated into the classroom space. In the South Asian context where teacher absenteeism, inadequate teacher training, and incidents of discrimination by teachers are prevalent, teachers form a significant part of the problem.

Third, in a region like South Asia that faces deprivation, education has to be envisaged as a tool to alleviate poverty. This can only be done if what students learn in schools is aligned with professional skills and economic opportunities. Presently, there exists a mismatch between school curricula and the demands of the economies.

Fourth, learning deficits are greater for learners from economically disadvantaged families compared to those from well-off families. The family background of a child which includes socio-economic status, home environment and the educational status of the parents remains a huge determinant of learning outcomes. Learning gaps between the poor and rich students increase as they move to higher classes.

Fifth, there is neglect of careful curriculum design to suit the needs of the population being educated. There seems to be a trend of importing course content predominantly from Western education systems and placing it in the midst of a very different target audience. This lack of context-specific curriculum makes learning not just less relatable and thus harder to grasp for students, but also does little to equip them to think of locally relevant solutions to the everyday problems they grapple with.

The learning crisis has a causal relation with the economic wellbeing of a population and development prospects in general. If more generations of learners continue to graduate out of schools without basic skills like reading, writing, comprehension, and analytical thinking, it is naive to expect them to be active participants in the economic growth of the region. The learning crisis also negatively impacts the political development and civic engagement of a nation. People who are more educated tend to participate more in civic activities compared to those who are less educated.

Potential solutions for improving education

Be it for economic, political, and social gains or for the intrinsic importance of learning in education, this major issue that South Asian countries face needs to be dealt with. For this, the following solutions may be considered.

1. Measurement of learning: The first step towards addressing the learning crisis is making it visible through an effective and efficient measurement system. Lack of a proper assessment of learning gives authorities the leverage to ignore the outcomes of education. Proper evaluation of learning outcomes shall also lead to awareness of the poor quality of education among parents and who may consequently demand the government to improve it.
2. Early childhood development programmes: Acquisition of foundational skills during early childhood is essential for the learning process throughout a child’s life. Factors which hinder early childhood development include malnutrition, low parental support, distressed environment and material deprivation. Immediate action is required, targeting these socio-economic factors that give birth to these deprivations in the first place.
3. Context-specific curriculum: Tuning the curriculum in consonance with the socio-economic environment of the learner will enable greater efficiency in learning outcomes. Students will be able to comprehend easily and  apply what they learn to the context they are situated in. This would help develop cognitive and analytical skills and thus amplify learning outcomes.
4. Continuous teacher education: There needs to be concerted attempt to make teachers effective in order to make the learning process successful. Even where there exist multiple training programmes for teachers over the course of their career, there is seldom continuity in training modules. The potential power of teacher training programmes to translate into enhanced pedagogies and thus better learning can be harnessed by comprehensive and continuous teacher education.
5. Learner-centric education policies: If education is seen as a vehicle of social and economic transformation, as is the case in many government publications across the region, students have to be made capable drivers of development. They have to be made the epicentre of education policies. What they learn, how they learn, and from whom they learn must be well thought through, for this will define the state of education in the region.

Conclusion

Besides efforts by individual states, the learning crisis has scope to be dealt with collectively. Given various socio-economic similarities, countries in South Asia can create some common curricular and pedagogic framework in line with the needs of students in the region. This will help make learning locally relevant while also making learners more aware. Such an engagement within the region shall help produce knowledge sharing platforms that shall enhance learning outcomes.

It is imperative that this learning crisis be arrested. This undoubtedly would require political will, apart from efforts by educators, civil society organisations working in education, and citizens. Placing learning at the centre of education and students at the centre of learning would be a vital prerequisite if we are to combat this learning crisis.

This piece was co-authored with Mehrin Shah and was first published on the LSE South Asia Centre Blog on 7th September 2018.

(https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/southasia/2018/09/07/combating-the-learning-crisis-in-south-asia/)

#MeToo: A gender curriculum

The #MeToo moment calls for a rethink of our education system

Over the past few weeks, many women have spoken about their experiences of sexual harassment. Some have named the accused. Many of these accounts have been of incidents at the workplace and by co-workers, and expose the prevalence of deep-seated sexism across professions. There have been various responses by the accused to these testimonies: unconditional apologies, resignations, stepping away from duties until further investigation — but also denial, intimidation and even further harassment. Some of these were immediate responses to mounting public pressure and questions; whether they reflected repentance or realisation on the part of the accused is debatable. Some other responses, such as intimidation through defamation cases, show the entitlement that many men in power enjoy. Both sexual harassment and the kinds of responses from the accused lay bare a critical failure of our education system. It will not be sufficient to say that it is society that allows, or even conditions, men to behave the way they do. Education, an important part of the socialisation process, is also to blame.

What our education lacks

The education that we are imparted needs to be held accountable at this juncture because of its failure on fundamental grounds. The purpose of education is not to only ensure that people secure employment or rise to coveted positions of power alone, it is also to ensure that they learn and practice equality and mutual respect. Many of the accused are qualified, educated men. Their actions compel us to ask whether those years spent in school, college and university have been unsuccessful in instilling basic values. It seems as though rising to top positions and enjoying power have emboldened men to behave in unacceptable ways, and the education system has done nothing to prevent this.

It is not uncommon to hear of incidents of sexual harassment being justified as “casual flirting” or being attributed to the offender’s “glad eye”. Using these terms to explain away or even justify these acts reflects the depth and expanse of the problem. I am reminded of an encounter that a friend’s mother had with a senior bureaucrat (now retired) a few years ago. During a meeting regarding a project on which her organisation and his department were collaborating, he told her that she was “smart and beautiful”. He then recited couplets in Hindi and Urdu. Such blatant display of inappropriate behaviour, which makes women uncomfortable, shows that men in power enjoy the impunity that accompanies attitudes and acts entrenched in patriarchy.

Today, many of us are not surprised at the volume of complaints of sexual harassment. This is because it has been normalised. Sexism is not casual, it is systemic. That our education system is failing to teach boys and men to recognise, challenge and refrain from sexist and even unlawful behaviour must be acknowledged and tackled.

The way forward

This is not to say that sexual misconduct or gender inequality is a by-product of a lack in education. The spotlight is not to be put on the educated alone, but on the system too. Among other things, education has the basic duty of ensuring that we become socially aware and sensitive beings who know how to interact and engage with people of different genders, castes, classes and communities. We must teach students that consent is an essential component of any interaction and that decisions, even of refusal, must be respected.

While there is considerable discussion on the need to change mindsets, efforts to actually bring about such long-term structural changes are rare. Gender equality must not be limited to newsroom debates, stand-up themes or films, although these are necessary. What the #MeToo movement demands is a continuous and systematic process of learning that leads to equality.

There must be efforts to incorporate a gender curriculum in all school and college classrooms, establish anti-sexual harassment cells, organise regular awareness programmes on consent across the country, and formulate measures to address incidents of sexual harassment. The police should initiate community engagement drives so that students know how to report sexual harassment. Campaigns like Operation Nirbheek, initiated to improve safety and security of girls in schools, have proven to be successful to a large extent. Interventions in educational institutions will be a much-needed start to strengthen voices against sexual harassment and make homes and workplaces safe. It is imperative that we begin early if we are to secure a closure to our #MeToo experiences.

This article was first published in The Hindu on 20th November 2018.
(https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/a-gender-curriculum/article25540532.ece)