The governments of Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Nepal, like other South-Asian countries, have remained committed to achieving better education and have constantly been improving their education system. With regards to Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) in education, Nepal’s School Education Sector Plan (2022-2032), Bhutan’s Bhutan Education Blueprint (2014-2024), and the National Education Policy (2010) of Bangladesh report commitment to achieve GESI—the Gender Parity is 0.95, 1.06, and 1.14, respectively. However, the targeted improvement is reflected only in GESI-related education metrics/indicators at the macro level. Such progress is necessary but not sufficient. The metrics that represent the condition and situation of GESI in education at the macro level do not represent the entire picture of education. These measurements are limited to enrollment, attainment, drop-out, retention, assessment, and parity about gender. The information harnessed from these indicators does help in the quantification of education achievement. However, these measurements lack information on the quality of education, i.e., the experiences children go through while being and becoming educated. To achieve this missing domain while addressing issues of GESI, researchers must explore dimensions, namely gender equality, equity, and social inclusiveness, as experiences of children at schools and harness knowledge to provide them with opportunities at school such that they realize equality and equity and feel access to inclusive, safe schooling environment for their flourishing and well-being in schools and beyond.
In addition to being propelled by a surge and rise in other global issues, the backlash against GESI/women’s rights pushes GESI in education backward. In this context, developing countries in South Asia now face new obstacles to educational success. A few problems include academic underachievement compared with girls, increasing sexual harassment cases in/out of school, harmful norms, and school violence. These issues are still persistent in public schools in South Asian countries. As more attention is given to access to education, learning experiences, and educational outcomes, a setback is in overcoming harmful gender norms, discriminatory practices, harassment and violence, and social exclusion within school premises. Efforts are being made to overcome the mentioned challenges, but more investment and financing are needed to make GESI a reality. Some proven innovations towards improving GESI in the education sector are a gender-responsive education system and equitable access to education for all through addressing gender-based violence, gender equality programming for transformative results, programs addressing discriminatory gender norms, and a call for gender-responsive workplace and institutional accountability. Shreds of evidence and proven successful practices depict that such initiatives, interventions, and innovations have a multi-sectoral approach based on quality data and evidence, partnerships that include girl-led networks and organizations, and girl leadership.
This project aims to identify, contextualize, adapt, test, learn, and help scale the Children’s Valued Educational Capabilities (CVEC) based on the gender equality, equity, and social inclusion (GESI) diagnosis tool. This innovative and culturally responsive tool informs the needed transformation in practices and strategies to address barriers to gender equality, inclusion, equity, and gender-friendly education for a safe environment for all children in public schools. In doing so, this action research considers the scaling theory of change and its underlying assumptions to provide measures of scalability and scalable pathways toward working to scale the GESI diagnosis tool and practices based on children’s valued education capabilities. Moreover, the research will assess the enabling, incentivizing, and impeding factors for scaling the educational capabilities and use of the GESI diagnosis tool. The learnings generated from the action research results will support informing and acting on capacity building and knowledge mobilization among the concerned education and cross-sectoral stakeholders towards achieving gender-responsive and socially inclusive education and safe school experiences for all children.
Grantor – Global Partnership for Education Knowledge and Innovation Exchange (KIX) and the International Development Research Center (IDRC)
Project Leader – Dr. Binayak Krishna Thapa
Lead Institution – Kathmandu University School of Arts (Lead Institution)
Participating Institutions and Partners – Rangpur Dinajpur Rural Service (RDRS) Bangladesh and Samtse College of Education, Royal University of Bhutan
Implementing Countries – Nepal, Bhutan, and Bangladesh.