BHUBANESWAR: The State government will introduce a gender equity curriculum in the school syllabus for students from Classes VI to X from the new academic year.A memorandum of understanding will soon be signed by the School and Mass Education (SME) department with Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) for the purpose which is expected to help improve gender outcomes and accelerate gender equity by changing attitude and behaviour among school-going adolescents.
The programme will not involve additional financial outlay and require minimal in-kind support from the State government. It will be implemented from 2022-23 academic year onwards.The curriculum will come as a supplementary textbook for social studies and its allied subjects such as geography, history and political science in the first year. From 2023 onwards, the curriculum will be integrated into the existing SCERT social studies and its allied subjects like geography, history and political science textbooks.
SME officials said the purpose of the programme will be to help children dream big and move forward with confidence to face all challenges in life. The gender equity curriculum will be adapted and customised to the local context through research.The partner team would undertake a formative study across five districts of Odisha to understand the local nuances for curriculum customisation to the State context.
J-PAL South Asia will be the key knowledge and learning partner supporting the government in measurement of impact and implementation of the programme.It will train the gender resource coordinators as master trainers, who in turn will provide training on the curriculum to social studies teachers across all upper primary and secondary schools in the State using a train-the-trainer model.The State Project Director of Odisha School Education Programme Authority has been appointed as the nodal officer for implementation of the programme.