Tamil Nadu - Madurai   

Call to end discrimination of women

Staff Reporter

National-level workshop on `Gender Just Education'

MADURAI : Relevant training programmes based on ground realities are a must for teachers to help them understand discrimination of women existing in the education system, said Padma Ramachandran, former Chief Secretary, Government of Kerala, here on Tuesday.

Inaugurating a three-day national-level workshop on `Gender Just Education Phase II' organised by the Centre for Women's Studies, Lady Doak College, she said such training would place the teachers in a better position to respond to students' needs, especially women, besides finding out ways to eliminate discrimination against women.

Emphasising that modern education system should be geared to have the vision to promote the spirit of enterprise, she said the system should encourage everybody to be bold and equip them to take risks.

"You should dare to be different and unique so that you can bring difference to your society, community and to the nation," she said.

Speaking on `eliminating the discrimination of women in education system,' she said the present education system perpetuated discrimination, which was hidden in many cases.

She also asked whether the system had provided identical chances for girls and boys while at school. Parents should also be educated on discrimination of women, Dr. Padma Ramachandran said. Even at pre-school, children should be provided with special toys, which were unisex in character, she suggested. Boys and girls could be asked to do a project in slum areas to find out the attitude of men towards girls and girls' education.

The District Primary Education Programme should involve the community, she said.

Pointing out that equal opportunities at classroom exercise was essential, she said boys and girls should know how to share the work of the other sex.

Women needed a support system for privacy and security, she said and asked all the centres for women's studies to form an association and exchange views on discrimination existing in classrooms.

The association should also find ways to eliminate it.

Introducing the workshop, sponsored by United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia (UBCHEA), Nirmala Jeyaraj, Principal, Lady Doak College, said that access to education was not a problem for women in modern times but still many factors existing in the society discouraged women's education.

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