GENDER BIAS IN EDUCATION

Abstract

Gender Bias in Education is an insidious problem that causes very few people to stand up and take notice. Over the years, the uneven distribution of teacher time, energy, attention and talent with boys getting the lion’s share, takes its tolls on girls. Whatever be the cause there is a gap in enrolment. The social barriers standing in the way of girls attending schools-poverty, compulsions of older girls in family having to look after the home and siblings, the conceptions or misconceptions that girls don’t need education and that what is taught in the schools is irrelevant to them, parents seeing limited economic benefits in educating daughters, lack of women teachers and separate schools for girls, supportive facilities and transport facilities, all these inhibit parents from getting the girl child enrolled. There is also a gap in retention of girls in schools even if they enrol at the primary stage. The gender discrimination in schools is an extension of what we think in the family, in society and the community in which we live. The gender bias in education reaches beyond socialization patterns: bias is embedded in textbooks, lessons, language and teacher interactions with students. This type of gender bias is a part of the hidden curriculum of lessons taught implicitly to students through the everyday functioning of their classroom. The present paper intends to highlight these issues and challenges which need attention and suggests appropriate strategies so that the gender positive environment is reinforced in educational system.