English - CEDAW Southeast Asia

CEDAW and the Law:
clear legal provision or intervention incorporating it into the curricula, textbooks and teaching
guides.
As to teacher’s trainings, one suggestion for consideration is that teachers must be
provided instructions on how to handle students in a gender-sensitive manner; for example,
teachers requesting only girls to carry out household chores at school because they are girls
are perpetuating a stereotype. (A further example is teachers discouraging girls to play sports
because playing sports is for boys.) Teachers should be provided with clear guidelines on how
to ensure gender-sensitivity in their interactions with students.
Recommendation: It is recommended that, to carry out provisions of the Plan of
Action for Advancement of Women and Law on Gender Equality, a legal document that
will operationalize revision of textbooks, curricula and teaching aids must be issued.
Gender expertise must be involved to ensure that gender is appropriately incorporated
in such revisions. The legal document must also specify that capacity of teaching staff
on gender must also be increased to enable them to use the textbooks, teachings
aids/materials, and syllabus appropriately.
It is also recommended that, in addition to addressing the textbooks, curricula
and teaching aids, teachers must be instructed in handling or interacting with students
in a gender-sensitive manner.
Indicator 69
Are there legal documents ensuring that school administrators,
personnel and teachers do not discriminate on the basis of
gender and are gender sensitive
The Law on Education specifies the roles and responsibilities of teachers, pointing out
also that teachers must constantly set a good example for learners 447 . Article 72 of the law lists
the duties of a teacher. Absent from the list, however, is the duty to treat students equally and
without discrimination, including on the basis of gender. Article 75 of the Law on Education
enumerates prohibited acts of teachers, but the discriminatory treatment of students is not
included.
208
The roles and responsibilities of educational administrators are provided in Article 16 of
the Law on Education, which states that educational administrators must improve themselves
constantly in terms of moral standards, professional qualifications, managerial capability and
personal responsibility. There are no explicit provisions that prohibit discrimination by
educational administrators. However, Article 86 of the Law on Education clearly provides for
the rights of learners to be respected and for learners to be treated equally by schools or other
educational institutions.
Recommendation: It is recommended that the Law on Education must clearly
provide that educational administrators, teachers and other school personnel must
treat students in an equal manner and strictly prohibit any acts of discrimination in the
education setting. The Law on Education must provide that school charters, and
teachers or student manuals, clearly prohibit and penalize acts of discrimination.
447
Law on Education, Article 72(3)
Review of key legal documents and compliance with CEDAW