Rethinking Schooling for the 21st Century

social harmony and order over freedom and democracy (Sen, 1999; Subramaniam,
2000; Myers, 2011). Whereas ‘respect for diversity’ and ‘tolerance’ rate a fair
mention, receiving a high weightage in the majority of countries surveyed, the
values of ‘democratic participation’ carry zero or low weightage in most (see
Appendix II-12). Similarly, under the category ‘human rights’, ‘civil liberties’ and
‘democracy’ carry a high weightage in fewer than one third of the countries, with
references to ‘civil liberties’ completely absent in nine countries (see Appendix
II-4). Moreover, most countries have no reference to the concepts included in
the category ‘activism’, namely, ‘participation in civic protest’, ‘engagement in
debates on socio-political issues’, and ‘action on issues of global reach’ (see
Appendix II-13.iii). This absence across most countries of references to actions
associated with the exercise of political freedom, coupled with the absence or
paucity of references to ‘civil liberties’, raises questions regarding whether the
apparently strong emphasis on empathy and collaboration in education policy
and curricula can be taken as indicating countries’ commitment to ESD/GCED.
Trend 5:
Gender equality is weakly covered in education policy and
curricula except in South Asia
Some sub-regional trends emerge with respect to gender-related issues,
including the prominence of ‘gender equality’ in education policy and curricular
documents in South Asian countries (see Appendix II-5; Figure 2.5). Countries
that accord high weightage to an umbrella sub-category of ‘gender equality’ are
concentrated in South Asia: Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Nepal. Afghanistan
and Bangladesh also give weightage to all related sub-categories (‘gender
equity’, ‘gender balance’, ‘gender roles’, ‘empowerment of women’). Likewise,
Indian documents make many references to ‘gender roles’ and ‘empowerment
of women’ and accord some weightage on all other concepts included under
the category ‘gender equality’. Pakistan gives moderate weightage to ‘gender
equality’ and low weightage to ‘empowerment of women’.
Among 22 countries, three make no (zero) reference to gender equality in
education policy and curricular documents: Iran, Indonesia and Uzbekistan.
In East Asia and Southeast Asia, there is generally a paucity of references to
gender equality. Malaysian documents frequently reference the sub-category
‘gender parity, sex ratio, gender balance’, ‘gender roles’ receive a high weightage
in Thai documents, and the umbrella sub-category ‘gender equality’ is invoked
with moderate frequency in those of Lao PDR. Other countries give at best a low
weightage to between one and three sub-categories relating to ‘gender equality’.
In Central Asia, references to gender equality are particularly scarce. Mongolia,
Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan make passing references to one sub-category apiece,
while mention of the issue of gender equality is entirely absent in the documents
from Uzbekistan. But the Gender Development Index (GDI) indicates that Central
Asia is by no means at the bottom of the Asian ‘league table’ in this respect. The
Rethinking Schooling for the 21 st Century:
The State of Education for Peace, Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship in Asia
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