The essay of the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) towards gender equality is to be welcomed. It is a critical initiative to break the gender stereotypes and the decision to introduce the new system at the preschool level will hopefully ensure that children are not gender biased when they grow up. As a quirky corrollary, this can impede the issue of women’s empowerment in the wider canvas. It would, therefore, be pertinent to mention the response of the co-winner of this year’s Economics Nobel, Esther Dufflo: “The award shows that it is possible for a woman to succeed and be recognised for success.

The award will hopefully prompt many other men to give them the respect they deserve”. The NCERT initiative is still more significant as it comes in the immediate aftermath of the recognition accorded by the Swedish Academy of Sciences to honour a woman. Sad to reflect, the issue of women’s representation in the legislatures ~ Women’s Reservation Bill ~ has been pending for as long as it has. It is fervently to be hoped that the NCERT’s decision will spur a rethink on conventional perceptions and societal mores.

The council assists and advises the state governments on policies and programmes that can bring about a qualitative improvement in school education. The NCERT has furnished the recommendations in its new guidelines for preschool education, a relatvely recent phenomenon. Its advice to schools will effect a paradigm shift at the threshold ~ “Schools should select books and other activities free from gender bias. Teachers should avoid language that limits one gender or another and use gender neutral labels.”

Indeed, teachers will be given special responsibility to “depict boys and girls, incuding those with special needs, in the same role as men and women in other professions”. The fineprint of the NCERT’s blueprint must be that children must be taught to understand and stop discrimination. Much will, of course, hinge on the earnestness with which the plan is executed by the authorities of the pre-school. The responsibility will devolve no less acutely on guardians not the least because the paradigm shift will be effected at an extremely tender age.

Which makes the venture rather sensitive. The practices must be in accord with the appropriateness of the children’s age, stage of learning and the context to promote optimal learning and development. This can be contextualised with the recommendation to ensure careful inclusion of children with disabilities. This will call for eary intervention to minimise learning difficulties and thus accelerate the development of the child. The ultimate goalpost is to ensure that today’s pre-school child grows to be a mature and responsible adult who is free from societal prejudices.