Class chores to exam scores: Gender equity must begin at school

Explore how gender equity in schools can be achieved, challenging stereotypes and fostering inclusive environments for all students.

Gender equality — a term you would have conversations about now and then around you, especially in digital spaces nowadays. But are the conversations happening where the foundation of today’s youth gets laid? Are schools creating opportunities and an environment for such discussions to flourish? We talked to several experts, teachers and students to understand the scenario better…

I remember back in school when punishments were often to make girls sit with boys and boys sit with girls, the class even used to be filled with whispers and snickers when this happened — a subtle example of how deeply embedded gender differences are, even at such a young age. From asking boys to lift chairs to saying ‘be like the girls, so good they are’, gendered remarks still find space in school corridors.

While gender debates go viral over the internet, it is quite important to look at how the topic is being handled at the most basic level of the education system we have in the country — in our school classrooms.

Anamika Unnikrishnan, a class 10 student from Thrissur, talks about how boys are still seen as troublemakers while girls are seen as more responsible children within classrooms. “It’s small everyday actions which teachers, or anyone else for that matter, do not realise are unfair — such as cleaning duties, which are still often just given to girls, even though it is a collective duty of the class,” she added. Sudha Ramalingam, a Chennai-based lawyer who works on gender related cases, points out the need for properly trained counsellors in every school and to communicate the gender differences to students in a healthy fashion. “If it’s a co-education school, they start telling girls to wear longer dresses, not to wear sleeveless, don’t wear this, don’t do that. At least there can be uniform dresses for both genders rather than creating such differences from such a young age,” she added.

The new gender neutral uniform at Moyans school in Palakkad. | Photo Credit: Mustafah KK

Stepping back 10 years in time, I remember my school having separate seating arrangements, assembly lines and even a separate ‘sex ed class’ related to menstruation, which often left me feeling very different from my male classmates, often even expecting differentiated treatment for the better or worse. It’s much later, and through conversations with several of my classmates, that I realised how much such actions actually have an impact on students. While talking to students from schools around the country, I realised the system has not changed much. While there is some progress, stigma still haunts many conversations.