India: Gender and human rights now in school curriculum

In the next academic year, students in government and aided schools will not just be welcomed with payasam and sweets, but they will also be told about gender rights. Director of public instruction (DPI) intends to make gender and human rights and gender sensitization a regular feature of school learning.
“We have lessons in social science and Malayalam on these issues. But it has to be integrated in the school curriculum in such a manner that it becomes a part of classroom teaching and activity,” said DPI director A Shahjahan.
To ensure this, DPI has asked the expert committee on state school curriculum to integrate gender sensitivity and rights in the syllabus that will be implemented in schools from academic year 2014-2015.
DPI’s decision to urgently include gender sensitization as part of the curriculum comes in the wake of the Delhi gang rape that shocked the nation. The human resource development (HRD) ministry too has been toying with the idea of including the topic in school syllabus for some time.
“The Delhi incident has prompted us to give importance towards the development of appropriate behaviour patterns among the youth towards all human beings in general and women in specific,” said Shahjahan.
The department is in the process of preparing modules on gender rights, human rights and even traffic awareness. These modules prepared in consultation with experts in the field will be delivered to schools before the beginning of the next academic year.
All students from class I to X will be part of this programme. In schools, where there are large of students, the gender sensitisation, awareness of human rights and even traffic rules will be done in batches
“The process which will start on June 1, will be regularly carried out by the schools. We also intend to rope in psychologists, doctors and counsellors to talk to students,” said Shahjahan.
Meanwhile, even as Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has decided to come up with a manual on gender sensitivity, many CBSE schools here have already started gender sensitization programmes in schools.

Source: Times of India – 23/01/2013 (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kochi/Gender-and-human-rights-now-in-school-curriculum/articleshow/18140282.cms)