The Department of Education Regional Office III launched the Gender Equality Movements in Schools of Central Luzon or (GEMS-CL), the flagship program of DepEd RO3 which highlights the region’s need to revitalize its efforts on Gender and Development (GAD).
This project also seeks to align with the mandate of the Department to provide students with gender responsive learning environment and various opportunities to understand gender roles and eliminate gender inequalities.
GEMS-CL includes year-round activities which kicked off during the in-house capacity building for the Regional and Division Gender and Development Focal Point Systems and other staff of the regional office.
Dr. Nicolas T. Capulong, OIC- Assistant Regional Director, underscored the need to revisit the GAD plans and make sure that all plans must be focused more on the clients- the learners of Central Luzon.
The development of teacher training manual/modules, the third phase of the activity, aims to provide all the 20 SDOs readily available materials in training principals and teachers to make learning- in all aspects gender responsive.
The proposed manual will include 5 modules; all focused in gender equality in education. It will consist the following topics: Gender Equality–Conceptual and Normative framework Module, Using gender lenses for curriculum, textbooks, teaching and learning (T&L), and assessment strategies; Using gender lenses for curriculum and textbooks, Using gender lenses for teaching and learning (T&L), (Teacher, language, punishment, classroom set-up etc), 3 Using gender lenses for assessment; Using gender lenses in school environment and Using gender lenses in educational facilities, Gender Mainstreaming in Education- Gender Analysis in Education, Using the EBEIS as guide in GAD Planning, Gender Responsive Budgeting in DepEd and Gender Impact Assessment; Gender Responsive Networking- Involving stakeholders in designing and implementing Gender Equality (GE), Advocating for GE and Mobilizing resources for promoting GE; and Monitoring and Evaluation- Quality issues in promoting GAD and gender equality.
According to Michelle Mejica, DepEd RO3 GAD Focal Person, the GAD flagship program is an offshoot of a research entitled “Assessing Gender Mainstreaming Practices in Philippine Basic Schools” presented in Seoul, South Korea.