Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Government is going to sign a Non-financial MoU with J-PAL to improve gender outcomes in the state. This will accelerate gender equity by changing gendered attitudes and behaviours among school-going adolescents.
The programme does not involve additional financial outlay and requires minimal in-kind support from the Government of Odisha. It focuses on integrating the gender equity curriculum into the school syllabi for Classes VI-X.
The purpose of the gender equity program is in synchronisation with the goal of the 5T School Transformation program which is to help the children dream big and move forward with confidence to face all challenges in life.
This program will be implemented in the Academic Year 2022 and onwards. The curriculum will come as a supplementary textbook for Social Studies and its allied subjects like Geography, History, Political Science this year and will be printed by the Government.
From 2023 onwards the curriculum will be integrated to the existing SCERT Social Studies and its allied subjects like Geography, History, Political Science textbooks. The partner team would undertake a formative study across 5 districts of Odisha to understand the local nuances for curriculum customization to the State context.
J-PAL South Asia will be the key knowledge and learning partner supporting the Government in measurement of impact and implementation. The gender equity curriculum will be adapted and customized to the local context through formative research.
The partner team will work with the Department to train the gender resource coordinators as master trainers, who will be empowered to cascade the curriculum to social studies teachers across all Upper Primary and Secondary schools in the State using a train-the-trainer model. That is, these master trainers will in turn cascade the training to teachers at the District Institute of Education and Training (DIETS). Master trainers and teachers will undergo the training on core gender and inclusion concepts, instructional design concepts, facilitation skills and subject orientation on the curriculum to be rolled out.
The State Project Director, OSEPA has been appointed as the State Nodal Officer for implementation of the programme.
