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EDUCATION FOR ALL GLOBAL MONITORING REPORT 2015<br />
GENDER SUMMARY<br />
is still a lack of knowledge about the extent to which<br />
teachers and teacher trainers draw on training in<br />
gender issues and how learners respond to it.<br />
Gender equality can be promoted through<br />
teaching and learning materials<br />
The Dakar Framework highlighted the need for<br />
learning content and materials to encourage and<br />
support equality and respect between genders.<br />
In 2010, UNGEI reiterated the importance of<br />
eliminating gender bias in school teaching and<br />
learning materials and called for greater attention<br />
to this policy issue (UNGEI, 2010).<br />
In schools at all levels of education, genderresponsive<br />
teaching is guided not only by pedagogic<br />
approaches but also by curriculum content,<br />
textbooks and other learning materials, which<br />
serve as vehicles for socialization (Brugeilles and<br />
Cromer, 2009). Schools can be powerful entry<br />
points for promoting equitable gender relations<br />
and diverse possibilities for male and female roles.<br />
Curricula can encourage children to question<br />
gender stereotypes and promote equitable<br />
behaviour. Conversely, discriminatory gender<br />
norms conveyed in textbooks or other curricula<br />
resources can damage children’s self-esteem,<br />
lower their engagement and limit their expectations<br />
(Esplen, 2009).<br />
Gender-sensitive curricula should be developed<br />
Gender-sensitive curricula acknowledge and<br />
address issues of inclusion, promote genderequitable<br />
learning and help girls and boys challenge<br />
traditional gender stereotypes. Gender reviews of<br />
curricula have helped raise awareness and support<br />
change towards more gender-responsive content<br />
and resources. In the United Republic of Tanzania,<br />
the national secondary school syllabuses, revised<br />
in 2010, contain gender-related topics. In civics,<br />
nearly 25% of form 2 lessons are devoted to gender,<br />
form 4 includes gender in the study of culture, and<br />
the 2010 civics exam included questions on gender<br />
inequality (Miske, 2013).<br />
Gender-responsive curricula that develop<br />
transferable skills have potential to support<br />
learning and promote gender relations. The Gender<br />
Equity Movement in Schools, a project in Mumbai,<br />
India, developed an add-on curriculum including<br />
content on gender roles, violence, and sexual and<br />
reproductive health for standard 6 and 7 children.<br />
Graduates demonstrated greater problem-solving<br />
skills and self-confidence alongside improved<br />
attitudes and gender awareness (Achyut et al.,<br />
2011). An interdisciplinary curriculum developed<br />
for the Sistema de Aprendizaje Tutorial, a<br />
secondary school programme for rural girls in<br />
Honduras including those who are indigenous,<br />
uses student-centred and inquiry-based learning<br />
that emphasizes dialogue. Its content questions<br />
dominant power structures and challenges gender<br />
stereotypes (Miske, 2013).<br />
Comprehensive sexuality education, including<br />
HIV and AIDS, is important<br />
In 2000, at the time of Dakar, AIDS was a grave<br />
and growing danger. In 2001, the United Nations<br />
General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS)<br />
adopted a Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS<br />
and established a core indicator (indicator 11) for<br />
monitoring life skills based on HIV education in<br />
schools (UNESCO, 2014a). Progress was assessed<br />
in 17 countries in sub-Saharan Africa by comparing<br />
household survey data in which young people<br />
were asked about their HIV and AIDS knowledge,<br />
suggesting this knowledge had improved among<br />
young men in 9 countries and among young women<br />
in 13 countries. However, inadequate treatment<br />
of human rights and gender equality in school<br />
curricula has been identified as a problem in<br />
educational responses to HIV (UNAIDS Inter-Agency<br />
Task Team on Education, 2006).<br />
In the years since Dakar, comprehensive sexuality<br />
education has gained widespread support as a<br />
platform for HIV prevention, and there is growing<br />
international pressure to consider receiving such<br />
education a basic human right (UNESCO, 2014a).<br />
Comprehensive sexuality education empowers<br />
young people to make informed decisions about<br />
their sexuality and their sexual and reproductive<br />
health (UNFPA, 2014). It is a critical area of<br />
curriculum for promoting greater gender sensitivity<br />
and equality among young people. Its current<br />
emphasis on healthy sexuality rather than the<br />
risks associated with sex is an evolution from<br />
earlier moralistic approaches, based on fear<br />
and considering learners passive recipients of<br />
information (UNESCO, 2014a).<br />
As yet, however, many schools still deliver narrower<br />
sex education programmes which fail to deal with<br />
the gender dynamics that accompany sexual and<br />
reproductive health (Stromquist, 2007; UNICEF,<br />
2013c). A review of sex education curricula in 10<br />
countries in eastern and southern Africa showed<br />
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