gender equality in elementary education a strategy paper ...€¦ · discrimination. education not...

Gender Equality in Elementary Education

A strategy paper in the Indian context

Geeta N Bhardwaj

C-5 Qutb Institutional Area, New Delhi 110016.

Acknowledgements

All the participants at the consultation on “Gender Equality in Elementary Education: Why and How” – organised by OneWorld South Asia, on March 9, 2006, at New Delhi, and the Knowledge for Development team for inputs and feedback.


BackgroundOneWorld South Asia believes in the power of knowledge and ICTs for equitable and sustainable development, and to achieve this, it focuses on the Millennium Development Goals1, and it works to connect communities through the creation of networks for knowledge sharing , and to empower people by collecting and amplifying grassroots voices through the use of various technologies.

At OneWorld South Asia, we work to discuss policy recommendations, address policy change and also encourage more pervasive and far-reaching implementation processes. Perceiving the need for participatory approaches and ensuring the active involvement of communities in policy discourses, we facilitate multi-stakeholder partnerships involving not only the policy makers and the private players, but also civil society and most importantly, the grassroots communities. This is done through various activities such as capacity building of communities, collecting and amplifying knowledge collection in online and offline modes, and creating and adapting technology to meet the challenges and needs at the grassroots.

One March 9, 2006, a panel discussion around the theme – ‘Gender Equality in Elementary Education: Why and How’ – was organised by OneWorld South Asia, in New Delhi, to initiate a discussion on strategies to ensure gender equality with specific focus on elementary education, and to facilitate partnerships for addressing basic issues for gender discrimination not only at the level of policy, structure, and institution but also of society, family and individual.

Achievement of gender parity in elementary education is one of the indicators of success in the Millennium Development Goals. The numbers say that, given the present trends, three out of seven continents are far from achieving this goal, and there is much concern and debate around how the numbers of girls accessing education can be increased. At the same time there is concern amongst women’s groups, that if we settle for the number game and go for net enrolment ratio and gross enrolment ratio as the only indicators, more critical aspects of quality of education, and gender equality in and through education may go unaddressed. The 8th of March, celebrated worldwide as International Women’s Day, was seen as an appropriate time for reflection on what it means to ensure equal access to elementary education for girls.

This strategy paper is based on discussions that took place during the panel discussion and attempts to stitch together the valuable points raised in the consultation into a set of action points that can be used by development organisations working on equity issues in education.The paper begins by addressing some opportunities, challenges and issues presented by the question of gender parity in education in the context of the MDGs; it then looks at the status of girls’ education in India and the various initiatives that have been taken up so far. It then presents some innovative and powerful examples that have successfully incorporated the principles of partnerships, empowerment and equality in their non-formal education initiatives among urban and rural poor women and youth.

1 In the UN in September 2000, one hundred and eighty nine heads of countries signed their commitment to the Millennium Declaration and resolved to work together towards eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), addressing poverty, education, gender equality and women’s empowerment, health, HIV/AIDS and other communicable diseases, environment and global partnerships, aimed to ensure sustainable and equitable development and better quality of life for all.

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IntroductionThe promotion of gender equality and empowerment of women has been prioritized in the MDGs, and this is a powerful indication of governments’ willingness and intention to ensure women’s equal status, opportunities and participation. There is no doubt that the achievement of MDG 3 has far reaching implications for all the other MDGs, and that unless women are empowered and work with men as equal partners, success in the MDGs will remain a distant dream. In other words, bridging the gender gap is an effective strategy to ensure that the MDGs are met.

At the same time, the measurable indicators that are linked to this goal actually depict the quantum leap that is required to achieve it. They represent a leap from a quantitative measure of gender parity in attendance to school, to the empowerment of girls and women in terms of equal job opportunities and equal participation in governance institutions. What

these indicators do not show is also the great crisis that faces India in terms of alarming sex ratios, with a national figure of 927 females to 1000 females in the 2001 census, which speaks volumes for the status of girl children and women; it shows an increasingly disturbing trend that threatens the girl child’s right to life, reduces the autonomy of women and multiplies the possibility of violence (in its myriad and emerging forms) in their lives. To bridge this yawning gap, what is required is a whole range of measures that will ensure a social environment that offers the same chances for girl children to be born and to survive in good health, to attend school, to access teaching methods and curriculum that are free from gender stereotypes, as well as academic orientation and counselling unaffected by gender bias. Also required is a climate in which education will result in outcomes such as equal opportunities in higher education and in the job market, equal wages for equal work, and last but not the least, for leadership qualities that make for their equal participation in the national parliament.

It is the qualitative aspect of education, leading to this transformation from girls with equal opportunities to schooling, to empowered women in the parliament that is the most daunting of all. Yet, it is true that education does have the potential to achieve this.

Historically, education has typically been aimed to inculcate a desired mode of thinking or action in people. Thus it can be used to enslave people, as was done at the time of the British rule in India. However, the principle of constructivism in learning states that as the mind gathers knowledge it constructs its own understanding and action; as a result, the output of education is not always in consonance with what the educators intended. Education can become a tool for empowerment, leading the oppressed or exploited to analyse and question existing systems, to create new knowledge and disseminate it for a new purpose – for liberation!


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MDG 3: Promote gender equality and empower women

Target: Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005, and in all levels of education no later than 2015

Indicators Ratio of girls to boys in primary,

secondary and tertiary education Ratio of literate women to men,

15-24 years old Share of women in wage

employment in the non-agricultural sector

Proportion of seats held by women in national parliament.


Key determinantsAccess, Quality and Equity are the three basic determinants of an education system. It is necessary that we look at India’s education system in the context of these three determinants with specific attention to gender, in order to identify gaps and seek strategies.

AccessAccess is being addressed by the educational system, more in the form of top-down prescriptive targets set by the government machinery, and some affirmative action and schemes to encourage the participation of girl children.

The Indian Government has initiated several innovative schemes to ensure the access of children, especially rural children, to school. These include Operation Blackboard, launched in 1987, the National programme of nutritional support to primary education, (which is today known as and operational under the name of Mid-day Meal Scheme), the District Primary Education Programme (DPEP), Shiksha Karmi project, Prehar Pathshalas, Aangan Pathshalas, the Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya and the Tribal Girls’Education project. There has been increased focus on the ensuring presence of a school in every locality, providing adequate facilities like books, school bags, mid-day meals for better nutrition, and introducing innovative learning materials.

These schemes have made some contribution to the improving numbers of girls accessing schools and education; however, results show that by themselves, projects addressing problems of access are inadequate. There is need to address situations of socialisation, social norms and cultural practices that influence parents, teachers and communities to discourage and deter the participation of girls in education. Also in situations of poverty, deprivation or scant resources, it is likely that boys will be sent to school notwithstanding the hardships involved; it is less likely that girls will be sent under such circumstances.

QualityQuality of education is determined by its relevance in terms of functionality, values, authenticity as well as the level of simplicity or comprehensibility. Present systems of education are geared towards teaching and learning of theoretical and abstract concepts and towards examinations that test the capacity of students to learn by rote.

Content bears little connection with every day realities of children’s lives and therefore application of knowledge is not considered a priority. A standardised, western, urban and elite notion of education further widens the gap between what is taught and the reality of every day Indian lives, especially in the case of rural children. Further, content still reflects patriarchal values along with gender, caste and class biases and serves to perpetuate these systems of discrimination.

Education not only needs to reflect realities, it needs to address everyday questions and problems that children in rural or urban localities face, and hence the localisation of education is very critical. At the same time, it must not eliminate the excitement of new learning, opening, as it were “new windows to the world, of sociological perspective, historical fact2”, or the fascination of exploring other countries, cultures and perspectives. It also needs to lay open the various options that learners have in respect of ways of thinking, doing and living, and to encourage analysis and informed choice.

2 “Windows to the World: Developing a curriculum for rural women” Nirantar, 1997. OneWorld South Asia

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Evaluation of learning ability is another factor that measures the quality of education and therefore iteratively determines its quality. Currently, the only criterion of performance is the marks obtained in examinations and this leads to skewed evaluations of learners’ ability. It does not reflect the extent to which learners have learnt to learn (life-long learning) and fails to evaluate their ability to apply learning in real-life situations. Moreover, it does not evaluate the impact on learners’ values and ethical systems.

The process of transacting learning or the mechanisms of delivery and administration are also factors that determine quality. Training of teachers and other functionaries is seen as critical in this context. Systems of monitoring need to be devised and set in place and this is something that NGOs and communities (including parents) can together work to ensure.

EquityEquity refers to the need for the government to ensure that each and every child has access to education of a certain standard (quality) irrespective of caste, class or gender. Therefore, it is closely interlinked with the issue of access; at the same time it refers to the multiple disadvantages that little boys and girls face because of their religion, caste or gender, or even because of their economic situation. It is well established that girl children who are from poor families of religious minorities or scheduled castes or tribes fare the worst when it comes to being able to benefit from school education.

Various efforts are being made by educational institutions to motivate parents to send their kids to school. These include the construction of neighbourhood schools, making the school environment more child friendly, improving physical infrastructure, construction of toilets, free distribution of mid-day meals; in some cases school bags, uniforms and books are provided free of cost. But increasing physical access can only bring the desired result if the educational environment is made to reflect principles of inclusion, tolerance, human rights, values and ethics. Additional and creative action is required for this.

Status of education for girls in IndiaAccording to UNESCO estimates for 2000-2004, almost two thirds of the world’s 800 million illiterates are women. And in almost all countries where literacy is below 90 per cent, women are more likely than men to be without reading and writing skills. Of the 137 million illiterate youth in the world, 85 million are women – 63 per cent of the total.

South Asia is one of the three regions in the world that lags behind in gender equality in primary school enrolment. Women’s literacy rates are 19 percentage points less than men’s. Although there has been some progress in the 1990s in reducing the gender gap in literacy, at the current rate, South Asia will not meet the MDG target for gender parity by 2015.

Education, especially for girls, has social and economic benefits for society as a whole. Educated women have greater wage earning potential and more opportunities to participate in public life. They tend to marry later and have fewer and healthier children who are also more likely to go to school. Education for girls is also and effective preventive weapon against HIV. It is with this perspective, and in order to meet the objective of Education for All (EFA), that the Indian government initiated the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, aimed towards ensuring 100 per cent enrolment in primary schools.


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Indicators 1990 1998 1999 2000 2001Net enrolment ratio at primary level Both sexes 83.8 83.3 82.8Girls 75.7 75.6 75.7Boys 91.4 90.6 89.4Percentage of pupils starting grade 1 reaching grade 5 Both sexes 62.0 59.0Girls 60.4 58.7Boys 63.3 59.2Girls to boys ratio Primary level enrolment 0.76 0.83 0.83 0.83 0.85Secondary level enrolment 0.60 0.70 0.71 0.71 0.74

Table 1: gender parity in Indian education (Source: UNESCO)

Table 1 shows that in India, the gross enrolment ratio of girls as a percentage of boys’ (gender parity index or GPI) has increased from 76 in 1990 to 83 in 1998. Subsequently it has remained at 83 for three years. There is a barely perceptible increase of 2 percentage points in 2001; the GPI in the case of secondary education is much worse.

India: net enrolment ratio at primary level

0

20

40

60

80

100

1990 1998 1999 2000 2001

year

valu

e Both sexesGirlsBoys

Figure 1

This graph (derived from Table 1) depicts the net enrolment ratio and the retention rate of girl children in school (represented by the percentage of girls starting grade 1 and reaching grade 5). The data clearly shows that NER is low in comparison with boys, and even with the national average. Available data with regard to retention rate shows that there is a declining trend for both boys and girls in the period 1998-99, but the drop out rate for boys is higher than girls.


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http://millenniumindicators.un.org/unsd/mi/mi.asp


India: percentage of pupils starting grade 1 reaching grade 5

565758596061626364

1990 1998 1999 2000 2001

year

valu

e Both sexesGirlsBoys

Figure 2

Research studies have shown that low enrolment and high incidence of drop-outs amongst girl students is due to cultural reasons and participation of the girl child in household work, including care for siblings, lack of lady teachers, and lack of suitable physical and social infrastructure. Further economic constraints lead to preferential access of boys to education, for families do see that as a priority, whereas education of girls is an early casualty in times of economic distress.

The graph shows a downward slope of reducing numbers of both girls and boys who continue in school from grade 1 through grade 5, and this is more pronounced in the case of boys as compared to girls. While this may be indicative of economic trends leading to increased poverty and consequent withdrawal from school, it is believed that the country-wide implementation of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) in mission mode subsequent to 1999 would have helped to reverse this trend.

Education in India: girls to boys ratio

00.10.20.30.40.50.60.70.80.9

1990 1998 1999 2000 2001

year

valu

e

Primary levelenrolmentSecondary levelenrolment

Figure 3

The gender parity ratio, measured by the ratio of the number of girls in education to the number of boys in education has been consistently increasing, albeit at a very slow pace. The GPI is lower in the case of secondary education.


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Causes for gender disparity in educationGender disparity in education could be attributed to the following factors:

personal factors: women themselves have low self confidence, and this results in women's potential not getting realised.

social factors: patriarchal and cultural beliefs, attitudes and practices. These are systemic societal conditions and regulations that exclude girls and women from accessing tools and opportunities for bettering their situation of discrimination and oppression.

institutional factors: structural factors. Institutions tend to overlook the complexities of social discrimination and this leads to conditions of exclusion for girl children.

Gender disaggregated data shows that girls and women are getting educated, entering the workforce and even breaking through the proverbial glass ceiling. However, this is restricted mostly to upper class, middle class and privileged women, and therefore it cannot be generalised. Recognition of economic, social and cultural diversities among women will guard against generalisation, and help traverse the long road to ensuring equal opportunities to rural illiterate girls.

In the context of MDG 2, it is time to acknowledge that Governments are taking action, for example waiving school fees for girls, to ensure access to education for girls. However there is still a need to go beyond quantitative indicators of access and academics, and to address the social factors that are holding back the girls from attending school. Also, in situations where girls come from traditional, conservative families, teachers can play a critical role as change agents. Therefore the sensitisation of parents and teachers is also important. In the final analysis, awareness and consciousness about the status of women needs to translate into concern and commitment to action.

Thus, equity is a more complex issue and needs to be addressed by changes in attitudes and belief systems, effected through nurturing, non-judgemental and non-didactic interventions; it needs to ensure attitude change through the inculcation of values that challenge discrimination and intolerance. This can best be achieved by depicting real life instances of diversity and differences and providing alternative models of mutual respect and coexistence.

Educational institutions, particularly at the elementary school level where children are typically between the ages of 6 and 14, have great potential to transform societies through the influence that they have on young and tender minds. By ensuring gender sensitivity in the teaching learning process, the content and curriculum, and also in the educational environment, values of gender and social equity can be instilled so that children of today become citizens who actively participate in the making of a gender just society.

However, all the inputs that go into the process of educating young minds are themselves the products of a patriarchal society. The formation of belief, value and knowledge systems, even in educational institutions, is facilitated by other institutions around them, such as the family, bureaucracy, teacher’s training colleges, and governance institutions. So if we wish to transform the quality of teaching to make it more gender sensitive, we need to also inform the thinking of various communities that interact with the education community; we need to transform these various institutions.

It has been seen that, in situations where social, economic and physical impediments to accessibility have been overcome, girl children perform excellently and show consistently good results and potential. Therefore, there is a need to move beyond physical access and academics to


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address the social factors that hinder the participation of marginalised communities, and especially girls, in education, and also to look at the quality of education in terms of its power to transform social relations, to develop nurturing qualities in boys and leadership qualities in girls.

Teaching about gender and patriarchyIncreased conceptual clarity about patriarchy and gender has the potential to make for lasting and transformational changes in the lives of people. This implies getting people to understand the meaning of patriarchy, which is the root cause of the countless disadvantages that girls and women confront on a daily basis.

Understanding on how patriarchal systems affect men as well as women in society through institutions and through control of women’s sexuality, reproduction, labour, economic and political participation, and how it is propagated through patterns of socialisation and creation of stereotypical notions of masculinity and femininity is critical. This can make people - including policy makers and implementers, administrators, teachers and communities - more aware and receptive to new ideas leading to greater equity in education.

There is a need to dispel misconceptions and allay fears caused by extant myths, for example, that ‘gender’ is a women’s issue, that women are women’s own enemy, or that elimination of patriarchy mean matriarchy.

Various opportunities present themselves in the form of government initiatives, civil society best practices and new information communication technologies. The next section of this paper deals with just a few of these initiatives and suggests possible ways in which different ideas can be interlinked for better access, quality and equity in education.

Government initiatives for gender equality in educationThe Indian Government has made primary and secondary education compulsory. The recent 86th Constitutional Amendment makes free and compulsory education a fundamental right for all children in the age group of 6 to 14 years. Sarva Shiksha Abhyan is an initiative of the Indian Government formulated to achieve Universal Primary Education in this age group by 2010. In addition, special provisions have been made to encourage girl children to go beyond primary schooling. These include a limited financial provision for girls’ education in the form of free textbooks and innovations at district levels.

The National Programme for Education of Girls at Elementary Level (NPEGEL) has also been formulated, as a distinct and separate gender component plan of SSA, for providing additional support for education of underprivileged /disadvantaged girls at elementary level.

Many States have made education completely free for girls up to higher secondary stage.

The ‘National Programme for Girls' Elementary Education (NPEGEL)’ guidelines call for setting up of model cluster schools(MCS) for girls, that will be equipped with facilities like teaching learning equipment, books, games, etc. These will be used for learning through computers, film shows, reading material, and will include self defence, life skills, riding bicycles, reading, games etc. These would be aimed at improving the achievement of girls, fostering an interest in education among them, and raising the importance of girls’ education in the community.


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There will also be facility for student evaluation along with remedial teaching, bridge courses, alternatives schools, flexible timing, back to school camps, and open schooling for girls where drop outs and irregular attendance and low performance are problems. The scheme provides opening of additional Early Childhood Care centres to meet gaps in the Integrated Child Development Scheme and relieve girls from the burden of sibling care. The scheme provides for free textbooks to girl children.

The support of communities, mothers, women’s committees, self helf groups, Mahila Samakhya Sanghas would be enlisted for motivating girls to attend school. The government also intends to synergise with the ministry of health and family welfare to provide health services to the MCS.

One scheme that has shown good results in increasing girls participation and reducing drop outs has been the ‘Midday Meal Scheme’ run by the Department of Elementary Education & Literacy.

The government also intends to help in the review/ development of textbooks, development of guidelines for incorporation of gender concerns, development/ compilation of supplementary reading material for girls, including life skills, which would provide the support needed for girls’ education etc., development/compilation of suitable curriculum and pedagogy including evaluation from the gender perspective etc. Material, pedagogy and modules already developed under programmes like Mahila Samakhya project, Lok Jumbish project and District Primary Education project, like gender review of text books, development of supplementary gender sensitive teaching learning material will also be collected and incorporated3.

Civil society best practicesIn this section three civil society initiatives have been looked at. These initiatives provide a range of possibilities for gender equality in education.

An enabling environment for girls: the BITs Pilani experienceThe Centre for Women’s Studies at BITS Pilani began their intervention with a study of the current scenario with respect to girls’ education in a village near them. After identifying the social and institutional factors affecting girl’s enrolment and participation in school, the centre mobilised students, doctors, government departments, the school community including parents, teachers and administrators to form intersectoral partnerships for community wide interventions to enhance access and participation of girls so that they benefit fully from education.

The BITS Pilani initiative illustrated how partnerships in an integrated approach can enhance or support the delivery of education. The preliminary study revealed that girls attendance and participation in school was dependant upon a number of factors. These included social factors, health-related factors and institutional factors.

Social factors Participation of the girls in household work. This was identified as one of the possible

reasons why the girls tended to get tired by afternoon; they tried to leave for home after the mid-day meal.

Early marriage. Several girls were married off soon after they were through with grade 5 and consequently dropped out of school.

Cost of uniforms. Girls also dropped out because they could not afford the cost of uniforms.

3 Source: Department of Elementary Education and Literacy, Government of India, (http://www.education.nic.in/npegl.asp)


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Health-related factors Low health and nutrition . BITs conducted health check ups and found girls to be anaemic.

Anaemia seemed to be the universal problem among the girls, problem of families not giving nutritious food either due to economic constraints or because of social norms.

Unhygienic practices . Further incidence of health problems because of unhygienic practices or lack of care during menstruation could be factors that led to girls’ dropping out, or low attendance or commitment to participation in school.

Institutional factors: Lopsided focus. School authorities do not give the true picture to authorities regarding

enrolment and dropouts as they are supposed to meet certain targets. Insufficient funds . Although the only girl’s school in the village did not charge any fees, this

left them with very little resources to pay for the question papers and answer sheets so oral tests were resorted to.

They also established that there was a close linkage between the socio-economic status of the village, its overall access to facilities like good drinking water, health services and school attendance.

The centre realised that in order to motivate girls to attend school and participate actively there, all of these factors would need to be addressed together. Therefore, community research is undertaken to understand the situation; this is followed by information dissemination on issues related to health, nutrition and basic services like water, training of teachers. The local authorities are alerted to problems of water, sanitation and basic infrastructure. All these activities are undertaken by the University faculty, researchers and students in collaboration with the village school authorities, teachers, students, parents, the larger community, the local doctors, the administration as well as with institutions like the Science and Society division of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), and the Centre for Social and Industrial Research (CSIR).

Transacting learning: the compu-ghar experience of AnkurAnkur is an NGO that has been working for over two decades with urban poor communities in Delhi, on a variety of issues like education, health, access to basic rights and participation in governance. A few years ago, they started a new project called compu-ghar or cyber-mohalla. Most of the girls and boys that Ankur worked with were school dropouts with limited literacy skills. The objective was to bridge the digital divide, and to build capacities of young people between ages 12 and 20, through the use of computers. Sarai was a technical collaborator in the project.

Technical trainingThe project was initiated with the youth familiarising themselves with computers largely through games and experiments. Gradually offline discussions veered to the identification of issues to work with. The mandate was to observe and write what they saw; the result was expressive, imaginative documentation, not only about the experience of the writers themselves, but also about the lives of other people, a documentation of life in an urban slum, or basti as it is called.

Once the material was collected, the group would sit together to select pieces for various publications that they brought out and distributed in the communities. The next step was to work on design and layout, formatting, editing and publishing. The youth were initially provided with training and guidance in the final production process. The use of computers and internet was


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closely linked with the entire process of understanding the community, and therefore the learners found it relatively easy to assimilate. Soon the programme expanded from one locality of Delhi to six, and the youth started communicating with other groups in India through the internet.

Community as the site for lifelong learningThe young men and women were encouraged to work together in teams; gender and other stereotypes and roles were altered and experimented with. As they learnt to depict life through the eyes of other people, their horizons widened and they grew more sensitive, even as their skills were honed.

The issues that were identified were not necessarily relating to women or explicitly addressing gender – but the question of gender equality was intrinsic in the process of working together, writing about one another and about men and women in the communities, and disseminating it.

An interesting example of how perceptions changed: One of the girls in the programme said, ‘When I first started working here I would be suspicious when I came upon two boys standing under a lamppost chatting - I would think they were up to no good and often felt threatened by the possibility of being harassed by them. But soon I realised that they too, needed a space to stand and share – I started listening to them and heard they were actually good friends meeting after a long time. I chose Friendship as my next topic and wrote about them.’

Social change through education: not a distant dreamAs a result of the project, not only did the youth gain confidence, self esteem and computer and communication skills, but also their families became stronger, their mothers’ lives improved, gender roles were challenged and girls and boys found it easy to communicate amongst themselves and with their elders. It also helped communities to listen to their younger members, to identify issues and seek solutions by themselves. The project is now being replicated by a group in Gujarat.

Development of gender-friendly curriculum and content: NirantarNirantar, an organisation that is committed to gender equality in education, believes that gender is a relational concept, and gender inequalities arise from unequal power relations between women and men. Nirantar identifies the need to look more critically at the popular catchwords like gender, access and quality of education as they are commonly used, especially in the context of the MDGs. In addition to looking at the physical aspects of education – such as better physical infrastructure, better textbooks, more colourful textbooks, more number of trainings and other such parameters, it is also important to keep in mind that gender is a relational concept and that power is central to these relations. Therefore in a context of unequal social relations, the content and the way in which it is transacted become critical.

Nirantar has been collaborating with the Government to ensure gender sensitivity in textbooks. While they concede that some changes have been brought out in the curriculum in recent times, for instance an increase in the number of stories and images of girls and women in textbooks; they feel this is only a starting point.

Teaching and learning material need to be reviewed to look at the social relationships that are portrayed in them. For instance there is need to shift from the popular mode of portraying women as helpless victims to women who take on challenges and struggle through them; it is not necessary to depict women as always winning these battles, but the struggle of women and their agency and inner power need to be highlighted.


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Reality and relevance of learning materialA story by Nirantar in their journal for neoliterates, called Pitara, looks at the theme of Unity and Diversity in a unique way. It reflects the voices and visuals of children looking at diversity and differences in terms of how they experience it in real life, and thus providing evocative and realistic alternatives rather than didactic prescriptions and rosy ideals. The idea is to gently lure the learner away from the familiar moulds and seek new ways of thinking or being.

Transacting the learning process: Encouraging self analysisLike Ankur, the strategy of Nirantar has been to avoid definitions and prescriptions, but to throw challenging positions, concepts and alternatives to the learners and encourage them grapple with it. A simple example is the way in which a family is typically depicted in contemporary textbooks. Families are typically depicted as nuclear and ‘happy’ with a father, mother, and two children – a boy and a girl. In a recent modification by the SCERT and Nirantar, we have a textbook that looks at a family in the Northeast that is female-centred. This gives the readers an opportunity to look at an alternative and equally real vision of ‘family’.

Transacting the learning process: Production of knowledge by the learners themselvesOne important way in which Nirantar has succeeded in empowering through education has been to involve a group of neo-literate rural women from a village in Lalitpur, Maharashtra, in bringing out a publication of their own.

Khabar Lahariya, as this publication is called, is brought out in the local language (Bundeli), reflects local stories, issues, problems and solutions, and has become a vehicle for empowerment not only for the women who produce it, but also for the entire community. Thus the production of knowledge for the grassroots communities by the people of the community can greatly strengthen its relevance and impact – both in terms of motivation for literacy and learning of new skills, but also in terms of widening horizons, analytical thinking and openness to changing attitudes.

Harnessing technology for education

The EDUSAT programmeThe government has endeavoured to harness the potential of modern communication technologies for reaching the unreached. One of the initiatives is an education channel called EDUSAT, in collaboration with ISRO. EDUSAT is the first Indian satellite designed and developed exclusively for serving the educational sector, in 2004. It is mainly intended to meet the demand for an interactive satellite based distance education system for the country, especially for the education of the population in remote and rural locations.

The launch of EDUSAT marks a major milestone in the country and poses enormous challenges as well as offers excellent potential for education in the country. The government proposes to use the ICT capabilities of the EDUSAT satellite for elementary education, literacy, vocational training and teacher's training. A later phase will expand to include Agriculture, Health, Community Development Programmes etc.

EDUSAT will be implemented through the following institutions: IGNOU (Indira Gandhi National Open University) Nodal Institution AICTE (All India Council for Technical Education) ICAR (Indian Council of Agricultural Research)


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NCERT (National Council of Educational Research and Training) UGC (University Grants Commission)

EDUSAT has already helped various sections of society; it is open to everyone and has been used by about 10,000 people so far. The website http://www.scec-ugc.org provides all required details on the educational courses and processes offered by the centre.

The Consortium of Education Communications (CEC) is an inter-university Centre set up by the UGC in the year 1993 with the objective of promoting the production and use of audio visual material in education. It motivates teachers to develop content that is relevant, useful and simple to understand; they then package the content and disseminate it through a channel that transmits education 24x7. The packages can be accessed by anyone, irrespective of caste, class, gender, or other constraints of time and place. The packages are also accessible / available on the Internet and are free of cost.

There is an increasing need for content of high quality on the channel. To meet this growing need, the CEC offers training in instructional design to enable people in production of good learning material. After the training, CEC also offers funding to people who were interested in developing content4.

Television The Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD), Govt. of India has been promoting actively the open and distance learning systems in the country. The launch of the Gyan Darshan bouquet of satellite based TV channels and Gyan Vani FM Radio Network are examples5.

GD-I, GD-II and Eklavya technology channel and Vyas channel are part of a bouquet of Gyan Darshan channels. Eighty five percent of the channel content is curriculum based, the rest being enrichment programmes.

Gyan Darshan transmissions are uplinked from the earth station of EMPC-IGNOU, New Delhi and can be accessed all over the country through INSAT 3C satellite on C-Band. Gyan Darshan telecasts are available throughout the year and round the clock without any break.

Gyan Darshan-1 carries the best selection of programmes from different sources for pre-school kids, primary, secondary school children, college/university students, youth seeking career opportunities housewives and adults. The programmes are contributed by major educational institutions and development organisations such as IGNOU, UGC/CEC, NCERT/CIET, Directorate of Adult Education, IIT and TTTIs.

Gyan Darshan-2 (GD2) is devoted to interactive distance education. Viewers can directly access the experts in the studio during an ongoing programme, express their views and have their doubts about various issues clarified as the programme goes on live. Gyan Darshan-3, EKLAVYA, the technology channel dedicated to technical education, telecasts programmes generated at various IITs. This channel is designed to carry video courses in different disciplines on weekdays and special interest programmes on Sundays.

4 Source: EDUSAT India (http://www.edusatindia.org/)5 Source: EDUSAT India (http://www.edusatindia.org/)


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http://www.scec-ugc.org/


TeleconferencingIn order to infuse interactivity in distance learning, one-way video and two-way audio teleconferencing facility is being offered through GD2. Important nation-wide programmes for IGNOU learners, lectures by eminent experts/dignitaries, discussions with RC Staff, Induction for new students and convocations for graduating students are conducted live through teleconferencing every year. Besides, tele-counseling sessions are conducted for select application oriented programmes such as nursing, information technology, CEMPA/CEMBA, MBA etc. in which the students get ample opportunities to interact with the faculty. Besides IGNOU, many other institutions also use this facility for reaching out cost-effectively to their learners scattered all over the country.

Community RadioLaunched in November 2001, Gyan Vani is educational FM Radio channel operated through FM stations from various places in the country. With 10 FM stations at Allahabad, Bangalore, Coimbatore, Visakhapatnam, Mumbai, Lucknow, Bhopal, Kolkata, Chennai and Delhi already on air the network is slated to expand to a total of 40 stations. Gyan Vani stations operate as media cooperatives, with the day-to-day programmes contributed by various educational institutions, institutes, NGO’s government and semi-government organisations, UN agencies, Ministries such as Agriculture, Environment, Health, Women and Child Welfare and Science and Technology, etc. besides national level institutions such as NCERT, NIOS and State Open Universities.

This is a unique low cost, interactive medium for enhancing and supplementing the teaching-learning process by reaching out to widespread learners. Each Gyan Vani Station has a range of about 60 kms and covers an entire city/town and the adjoining rural area. Gyan Vani serves as an ideal medium for niche audiences to address the local educational, development and socio-cultural requirements. The flavour of the channel is by and large local, and the medium is English, Hindi or language of the region. The broadcast duration varies from station to station but the overall content relates to education at various levels from primary to higher education, as well as adult education, technical and vocational education, distance and extension education.

Recognising the power of community radio for reaching large numbers of people and for rapid diffusion of important messages on various issues, and to provide a platform for expression of views, concerns and perceptions, OneWorld South Asia has working with over a hundred community centres in India, Sri Lanka and Nepal, building capacities to identify issues of concern, collect information, write scripts and produce radio programmes. OWSA has also initiated a radio programme “Ek Duniya Ek Awaaz” for addressing various health, social, environment and development issues in Delhi and other selected states in association with NGOs. OWSA also offers its audio studio at Delhi to produce radio programmes.

Radio waves are currently available with universities and educational institutions as well as the commercial radio channels. There has been active lobbying to pass a bill that will allow both non governmental organisations as well as civil society groups to get licences to start radio stations, and this is currently awaiting clearance from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Until this is done, communities will continue to use narrow casting through audio cassettes and listener’s clubs to carry forward the message from the audio programs.

Interactive Radio Counseling (IRC)IGNOU offers one hour of live phone-in counseling programme weekly through the National Network of AIR and the Gyan Vani stations where studio invited experts clarify student queries put across to them from their homes via telephone. This value added services is presently being


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offered through nearly 184 All India Radio stations and toll free conferencing facility is available to the learners in 80 cities to interact freely with the experts.

Community Advocacy Centres OneWorld South Asia in partnership with community based organisations to set up community advocacy centres. These centres will enable and facilitate the use of multiple media such as print, radio and Internet media for voicing concerns of the communities. The idea is to introduce community youth and women to various media and to train them in using these to narrate their own stories and concerns. These have started functioning in urban slum localities of Madangir, Sangam Vihar, Lal Kuan, Okhla in south Delhi and Shabad Daulatpur, Jehangirpuri, Mukundpur and Bhalswa communities in north Delhi region.

In February 2006, an advocacy centre was set up at BITS Pilani, in collaboration with their Centre for Women’s Studies. Two information nodes have been set up in nearby villages, to be accessed and used by the community there. OWSA is now building the capacities of knowledge facilitators in the dissemination of information on health-related issues through the use of community radio, and the collection of information through the computer. Over the coming year, other technologies will also be brought into use for research and for dissemination of IEC materials on health.

Strategy for gender equality in elementary education

The points that emerged from the consultation are summarised below:

Partnerships for ensuring education for all

1. Conduct base line study to understand the situation of the community in general and girl children in particular, to determine economic, social and health status and to identify key issues of concern.

2. Dialogue with parents, teachers and administrators to determine the possible personal, social or institutional causes for girl children’s non-attendance, non-participation or dropping out of school.

3. Facilitate monitoring of local schools by local communities & NGOs in a collaborative, non-judgemental mode.

4. Build capacities of teachers and administrators for gender sensitive teaching and learning processes; facilitating life-long learning, functional literacy, and value education.

Integrated approaches to problem solving in respect of girl children’s education

5. Provide an enabling environment, ensuring health and nutrition, changing gender-based division of roles etc.

6. Ensure access to information and knowledge to the poorest communities and families. For example information about women’s health, hygienic practices, home remedies, health centres and health rights can lead to better health for women and girls, and then to better chances for girls’ education.


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7. Devise non-threatening, enabling ways to sensitise communities to ensure gender awareness and better lives for girl children.

Content creation and dissemination

8. Develop gender-sensitive curriculum and learning material.

9. Use ICTs for the production and dissemination of knowledge, for this has the potential to accelerate the pace of progress.

10. Facilitate local people to develop local content in local language - this can increase confidence and build self esteem, nurture sensitive observation and acceptance, and at the same time it can help to sharpen technical skills such as use of computer and internet, use of graphics and word processing software, desk top publishing, printing and production.

ConclusionThis paper has been occasioned with a view to identifying 10 key ideas that can be implemented across the board, by NGOs working with rural and urban communities, and also those who are involved at the level of policy in education.

The consultation was rich in terms of illustrations and actionable points for implementation. We acknowledge that there are countless other initiatives that are equally laudable and replicable, and we look forward to examining these initiatives in subsequent months with a view to glean the best from them. OneWorld South Asia sees its role in creating platforms for the sharing and dissemination of knowledge; it also seeks to implement some of these ideas through the grassroots initiatives and partnerships and through the use of ICTs.


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APPENDIX: Report on the Consultation

A panel discussion around the theme - Gender Equality in Elementary Education: Why and How – was organised by OneWorld South Asia, in New Delhi, to initiate a discussion on strategies to ensure gender equality with specific focus on elementary education, and to facilitate partnerships for addressing basic issues for gender discrimination not only at the level of policy, structure, and institution but also of society, family and individual.

IntroductionDr. Shadrach in his opening remarks pointed out that the phrase Ek Duniya or OneWorld implies a sense of oneness, togetherness, and in this context it is important for both genders to work together for development. He also stressed on the need to go beyond quantitative indicators and numbers and to look at issues of social and gender equity to ensure a better world here and now.

OneWorld South Asia believes in the power of knowledge and ICTs for equitable and sustainable development, and to achieve this, it focuses on the MDGs. There is need for participatory approaches ensuring the active involvement of communities in policy discourses. People need to take responsibility for framing of good policies. OneWorld South Asia thus believes in multi-stakeholder partnerships involving not only the policy makers and the private players, but also civil society and most importantly, the grassroots communities. The panel discussion was chaired by Prof.Jaya Indiresan. She opened the discussion with a lucid analysis of girls access to education and its expected impact on women’s empowerment. She also stressed on the personal, social and institutional factors that influence the achievement of women’s potential and suggested that the panel address questions of access, quality in education as well as the role of teachers, parents, and other institutions in ensuring that girls get equal opportunities in education.

Production of knowledge by women, for women – Application for Gender in Elementary Education The panellist, Malini Ghose, is a founder member of Nirantar, which is a resource centre working in gender and education, and produces a range of educational material focussing on gender sensitive curriculum development, and material for the neoliterates. It also works in the field in two districts of Uttar Pradesh. It conducts research, which is used to feed back into the community in the form of published material, trainings, and for advocating with the government for relevant, gender sensitive education – with respect to curriculum, material and programmes.

Malini looked critically at the popular concepts of gender, access and quality of education as they are commonly used, especially in the context of the MDGs. In addition to examining the physical aspects of education – such as better physical infrastructure, better textbooks, more colourful textbooks, more number of trainings and other such parameters, it is also important to keep in mind that gender is a relational concept and that power is central to these relations. Therefore in a context of unequal social relations, the content and the way in which it is transacted become critical. Examples from Nirantar’s own field experience were used to illustrate how gender can be dealt with in non-threatening, non-didactic ways by using empowering images, stories and techniques and by the active involvement of the learners in the learning process.

Application of EDUSAT for promoting Gender Equality in EducationThe Consortium for Educational Communication uses EDUSAT, headed by Prof.G D Sharma, is the technology wing of the university grants commission and is committed to delivery of higher education by harnessing the power of technology. One of the initiatives is an education channel in


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collaboration with ISRO, which makes a large number of educational courses available to the rural and urban population. Distance education has helped various sections of society. It is open to everyone and has been used by about 10,000 people.

Prof.G.D.Sharma began his presentation highlighting women’s inherent strength and power, pointing out that, at one point in history, women were at the forefront of development. It was with the origin of private property that the process of disempowerment of women began. He stated that education can be used as a tool for emancipation and empowerment, and that access to information is critical for survival. In this context, CEC is committed to ensuring greater access to learning material for girls and women through EDUSAT, a satellite technology that has been deployed by the Government in its university programme.

Prof.Sharma invited all the participants present to make use of the EDUSAT facility; he also stressed the increasing need for content of high quality on the channel. To meet this growing need, the CEC is offering training in instructional design to enable people in production of good learning material. He announced the next training course on Development of e-content. After the training, CEC would also offer funding to people who were interested in developing content.

Indu Capoor of Chetna, Ahmedabad, wished to know if there was disaggregated data on the number of girls and boys taking advantage of such services. She said that in her experience, the technical revolution was only widening the gender divide. Prof.Sharma clarified that since the service was largely offered through colleges, the number would depend upon the number of girls or boys in these institutions. He felt that girls were more inclined to visual learning and therefore would use it more often. It was suggested that the CEC should attempt to gather gender disaggregated data in future.

Challenges and Opportunities for Gender Equality in Elementary Education: The experience of Ankur

Jaya Srivastava shared the experiences of Ankur's ICT project, entitled compu-ghar or cyber-mohalla, which been implemented in a few urban slums in Delhi. This philosophy that informs this project is the just the same as all the other projects at Ankur – it involves moving beyond gender to identify the uniqueness of each individual. In doing so they managed to weave gender awareness and communal harmony into the very fabric of the programme in a much more effective way. Most of the girls and boys that Ankur worked with, on this project, were school dropouts with limited literacy skills. The objective was to bridge the digital divide, and to build capacities of young people between ages 12 and 20, to use computers. Sarai was a technical collaborator in the project. Ms.Srivastava shared the success of the project, both in terms of imparting technical skills of communication through internet and computers, but also in terms of lifelong learning skills gleaned through observation, documentation and analysis. She also shared how gender sensitivity was nurtured through creation of an enabling environment for the youth.

Vision for Gender Equality in Elementary Education: the positive role of knowledge centres in community mobilization

Prof. Nirupama Prakash from Centre for Women's studies (CWS) BITS Pilani presented the case study of a village in Jherli village near Pilani, and the initiatives of her department in assessing the quality of education and nutrition for girls going to school, and in encouraging girls to attend school. This was taken up as a part of the research and voluntary work of the University in the villages around it. She focussed on the social, economic and institutional factors affecting girls’ attendance and the ways in which multiple stakeholders could make a difference, along with the deployment of various ICT tools.


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Observations from the forum

Role of Government Preeti Darooka and Shewli Kumar from PWESCR raised questions regarding the role of government in education today. Gender equality in education in MDGs is a commitment made by the Indian Government, and while NGOs are making huge but discrete attempts to ensure equity and quality in education, the government needs to pick up from these models and replicate them across the country, that is the only way in which MDGs can be achieved! Also there is increasing privatisation of education, and this is a cause for alarm. The Government needs to ensure that the highest quality of education is given to all.

Jaya Srivastava responded saying that both Nirantar and Ankur have been actively involved in advocacy for improved the quality of education; at the same time they are working with NCERT and SCERT on some quality initiatives; they have also gained permission to intervene in a local school under the Bhagidari system.

Power of Multi-stakeholder partnerships

The role of partnerships between communities, NGOs, Government and Private Sector was highlighted, as all need to synergise to achieve the MDGs. At the same time, advocacy and monitoring of service delivery in education are two aspects that need to be continued, efforts coming from NGOs and communities to keep this up. The OWSA initiatives and the UNDP Solutions Exchange do focus on this mode of partnerships toward achieving the MDGs.

Community outreach programmes

‘For gender equality role models are important. Most important role models are of parents and teachers. Further, while the quality of learning material is important, it is also important to ensure gender-sensitive delivery of material. Therefore out-reach programs for parents and teachers are also important’ – Indu Capoor of Chetna, Ahmedabad.

Local content and capability

Indu Capoor stressed on the need to facilitate and encourage communities to find local and simple solutions to problems like anaemia, like the use of indigenous vegetables.

Measuring impact Sarah Pilot and Julie Bazeley of UNIFEM said that there was a need to monitor the impacts of the health check ups and other interventions in the community.

Functional literacy, life skills education and value education

Krishnambika Nambiar pointed out the need to ensure the creation of relevant content intended to provide functional literacy and life skills education. Sunil Kumar suggested that greater stress should be placed on the aspect of value education, and also that we could, as a strategy, reach out to key influential people in the community, who can in turn sensitise larger numbers of people around them.


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Profile of the panellists

Prof.Jaya Indiresan has taught in Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, in the Technical Teachers’ Training Institute, Madras and at the National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration, New Delhi. She has been a visiting professor at the University of Manitoba, Canada, and a Jean Campbell Scholar at the Centre for Education of Women at the University of Michigan, USA. Currently, she is a consultant to several national and international agencies. She has been involved in several cross-cultural studies comparing education systems in the UK, Sri Lanka, Nigeria, Malaysia, Japan, Canada, USA and India. She conducted a national research project on “Moving Beyond Access: Gender Positive Initiatives in Women’s Colleges” to examine the role of women’s colleges and universities in promoting the development of women students and the implications of training for women in educational leadership.She has also undertaken major research projects on women in police, women in agriculture, women in higher education and has several research papers and publications to her credit.

Dr. G.D.Sharma is currently the Director, Consortium of Education Communications, an inter-university Centre set up by the UGC in the year 1993 with the objectives of promoting the production and use of audio visual material in education.

He has held positions of significance and responsibility at the Higher Education Unit, NIEPA, Indian Institute of Education, Pune and Secretary, and University Grants Commission, New Delhi. He was also a Honorary Professor of Kuying Hee University in South Korea; He specialises in planning and management of higher education and economics of education; has published several books and research papers and has been consulted by international agencies like UNESCO, and UNDP.

Jaya Srivastava is a social activist, who has been a part of various movements, including the women’s movement, the child rights movements and the Narmada Bachao Aandolan. She was Director of the Ankur Society for Alternatives in Education for seventeen years, where she focused on the empowerment of people through education in six slums of Delhi, as a tool for social change and education as holistic vision of life. She has been advocating for the development of alternative curriculum for addressing issues like social conflict, peace, feminism and the child-centred approach and overall justice, equality and peace.

Malini Ghose is a founder member and co-ordinator of Nirantar, a resource centre on Gender and Education. She has over two decades of experience in the field, and has initiated several innovative and path breaking projects for literacy and for teaching learning processes that are empowering for the learners. She has also been part of several Government initiatives for gender sensitive curriculum development.

Dr. Nirupama Prakash is Group Leader, Humanistic Studies Group and Co-ordinator, M.Phil, Hospital & Health Systems Management program (offered by BITS, Pilani in collaboration with Christian Medical College, Vellore, Bombay Hospital, Mumbai and Tulane University Medical Center, New Orleans, U.S.A) at Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani, Rajasthan.

Professor Nirupama Prakash has many research papers to her credit. She has organised and participated in various national & international forums to present papers on social & women’s issues. She is an active researcher in the field of Social Science with prime research interests in gender studies, medical sociology, social conflicts and socio-cultural & development issues.

She graduated from Miranda House, Delhi University and completed her post graduation in Sociology from JawaharLal Nehru University, New Delhi followed by PhD in Sociology from Benaras Hindu University, Varanasi. She has been a Fellow of Indian Council for Social Science Research (ICSSR) and has worked on several ICCR and UGC sponsored social sector projects.

After a post doctoral research in Medical Sociology at Hartshill Medical Institute, U.K, Prof.Prakash has also taught at the George Washington University (GWU), Department of Sociology and the Center for International Health in Washington, D.C.; Tulane University Medical Center, New Orleans, and the University of Maryland at College Park, USA.


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Name Organisation Email addressesJaya Srivastava [email protected] Ghose Nirantar [email protected] Prakash BITS Pilani [email protected] D Sharma CECGeeta Saikhom SJJKS, Bharalpur Rajasthan [email protected] Shanker SJJKS, Bharalpur Rajasthan [email protected] Mitra Action Aid, Kolkata [email protected] Hardak FMS-IRN Jodhpur [email protected] R Mendiratta Datamation Foundation [email protected] Sachdeva UNIDO [email protected] Ahmed UNIDO [email protected] Muralidharan OXFAM [email protected] Nambiar UNESCO [email protected] R Dutta Christian Medical

Association of [email protected]

Esther Emmanual Health Association

[email protected]

Shantanu Dutta Emmanual Health Association

[email protected]

Indu Capoor CHETNA [email protected] Prakash BITS Pilani [email protected] Bhongale Guild of Service [email protected] Rodericks Guild of Service [email protected] K Bansal Swavalamban [email protected] Bansal Swavalamban [email protected] Prabhu UNIFEM [email protected] Pilot UNIFEM [email protected] Bazeley UNIFEM [email protected] Dhawan Solutions Exchange,

[email protected]

Juhi Jain SANGAT [email protected] Sinha-Bal Angaja Foundation [email protected] Singh Apeejay Education

Research [email protected]

Priti Darooka PWESCR [email protected] Kumar PWESCR [email protected]


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mailto:[email protected]



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