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Gender and Education for All
THE LEAP TO EQUALITY |
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| Box 4.14. Curriculum reform in Malawi | |
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The Government of Malawi, through the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MoEST) established the Gender Appropriate Curriculum (GAC) unit at the Malawi Institute of Education (MIE) in 1992. The unit was charged with the responsibility of incorporating gender sensitivity into the primary curriculum, primary teacher-training curricula (both residential and in-service). The unit ensures that the content in instructional materials has words, statements, examples and illustrations that are neutral as regards female and male images. It also ensures that teacher-training programmes are designed to eliminate gender bias in the classroom, that all primary teacher in-service training is gender appropriate and that senior Ministry of Education officials are aware of gender issues in their policies and practices (MIE, 1996).
Primary and secondary textbooks have been revised to make them gender sensitive and to portray girls and women in more positive roles. Training has been provided for school textbook writers, editors and some teachers to make their work gender sensitive. As of 1999, training of key professionals on gender issues had been conducted with 240 primary education advisors; 9 district education managers (out of 24); 125 teacher-training college tutors; 10,000 serving teachers; and 10 community development assistant trainers (Kadyoma et al., 1999).
Major attempts have been made at primary level to have more illustrations of women and girls in the revised textbooks. For example, in the Standard 3 English Pupils’ Book, 52% of the illustrations depict female characters, whereas the earlier school textbooks were predominantly illustrated with male characters. It
| | can be observed from the sample secondary textbooks that social studies and home economics have almost half of their illustrations depicting both male and female characters. On the other hand, in science and technology, most of the illustrations are predominantly male. Gender balance remains a challenge for the education sector at secondary-school level. Furthermore, gender stereotyping can be traced in some of the illustrations in some of the textbooks. For example, men are depicted as university graduates, police officers, radio announcers, journalists and doctors, whereas women are portrayed as nurses. However, overall, illustrations portray men and women in more positive roles. For example, there are illustrations of female engineers, female judges and female students doing experiments in a science class. There are many illustrations where men and women are doing things together.
In 1993, MoEST removed subject restrictions that barred girls from sciences at the primary and secondary levels. All subjects, including sciences, are open to all students. For example, boys can opt for subjects such as home economics and girls can opt for wood and metal work.
The Malawi primary curriculum is currently being reviewed through participatory approaches sensitive to gender. According to the Primary Curriculum and Assessment Review (PCAR) Report (Malawi, 2002), it is intended that boys’ and girls’ interests, values and needs will be reflected in the new curriculum. In the recommendations, there is a clear mention of the need to emphasize the development of literacy and numeracy skills, and other emerging issues such as gender equality and HIV/AIDS.
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Source: Maluwa-Banda (2003).
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