According to the Action Plan approved by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine dated 16 December 2020 No. 1578-r, Ukraine undertook to ensure the inclusiveness of the principles of gender equality in education by:
1) elaborating and approving the Gender Equality Implementation Strategy in Education until 2030,
2) approving the action plan for the Gender Equality Implementation Strategy in Education until 2030,
3) introducing the mandatory anti-discrimination examination of the entire educational content,
4) conducting a gender audit of educational institutions.
So what of the planned goals have been achieved and what are the successes and expectations as a result!?
Regarding the Gender Equality Implementation Strategy in Education until 2030. The Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine has developed a draft Gender Equality Implementation Strategy in Education until 2030 (hereinafter, the Draft Strategy) in order to implement Paragraph 2(1) of the Action Plan. The Draft Strategy has been approved by the Public Council of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and agreed with the Public Council on Cooperation with Churches and Religious Organizations of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine. The Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine forwarded the draft order of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine “On the Approval of the Gender Equality Implementation Strategy in Education until 2030” to the relevant central executive bodies for approval.
Afterwards, the draft act was to be sent to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine for approval. At the same time, it was necessary to take into account some changes to the Strategy due to the hostilities in the territory of Ukraine, and to adapt it to the Istanbul Convention ratified by Ukraine.
Therefore, on 07 June 2022, a joint meeting of the expert group (gender experts, linguists) and the Directorate of European Integration, Budgeting and Policy Coordination of the Ministry of Education and Science was held. As a result, the proposed amendments to the text of the Strategy were agreed and adopted; it was decided to integrate into the text of the Strategy the issue of ensuring gender equality and combating discrimination in wartime and in the context of recovery from its consequences.
After Ukraine ratified the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (Istanbul Convention), with the approval of the Ministry of Education and Science, the expert group continued working on the text of the Strategy for the integration of the provisions of the Istanbul Convention into it.
Upon completion of work on the final version of the Strategy, by its Decree No. 1163-r dated 20 December 2022 the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine approved the Gender Equality Implementation Strategy in Education until 2030 and the action plan for its implementation over 2022 – 2024.
The strategy defines the basic principles, target groups, strategic goals and indicators of their achievement, tasks for the implementation of the state policy aimed at ensuring equal rights and opportunities for women and men in education.
The 2022 – 2024 action plan for the Strategy implementation proposes tasks, measures, responsible implementing bodies, deadlines and expected results of the implementation of the strategic goals.
Regarding a gender audit of educational institutions. The methodology and criteria for conducting a gender audit of educational institutions were approved by Order No. 1182 of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine dated 05 November 2021. In December 2021, members of the gender audit working group participated in the online gender audit training. The audit of educational institutions was supposed to start in 2022, but it is currently impossible due to the imposition of martial law in the territory of Ukraine.
Regarding the introduction of the mandatory anti-discrimination examination of the entire educational content. In November 2020, Order No. 931 of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine dated 20 July 2020 “On the approval of the Procedure for assigning seals to educational literature and educational programs” (hereinafter, the Procedure) entered into force; the following steps were taken under this Procedure:
– the composition of the subject (sectoral) expert commissions and expert groups was approved (Order No. 95 of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine dated 22 January 2021), among which a separate expert commission on anti-discrimination expertise was set up; later, changes were made to the appendix of this order regarding the composition. In June 2022, an announcement was published on the website of the Ministry of Education and Science about the selection of members of the subject (sectoral) expert commissions and groups authorized to conduct examinations and make decisions regarding the assignment of seals to educational literature and educational programs (with requirements for such candidates), with the aim of making further changes to the composition of the commissions and groups. Candidates could submit their documents by 01 August, and on 05 August 2022, the Ministry of Education and Science issued its new order No. 700 “On the formation of the subject (sectoral) expert commissions and expert groups”;
– the Guidelines “On comprehensive examination of the items, to which (electronic) seals were assigned, and their evaluation criteria for the purpose of assessing the feasibility of assigning the appropriate seal of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine” were approved (by the Academic Council of the State Research Institution “Institute of Modernization of the Content of Education” on 27 January 2021 year, minutes No. 1) ; the anti-discrimination examination is one of the components of the comprehensive examination;
– the Guidelines “On comprehensive examination of the sealed items – model curricula and criteria for its evaluation in order to prepare a conclusion on the expediency of assigning the relevant seal of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine” were approved (by the Academic Council of the State Research Institution “Institute of Modernization of the Content of Education” on 28 April 2021 year, minutes No. 4); the anti-discrimination examination is one of the components of the comprehensive examination;
– members of the subject (sectoral) expert commissions and expert groups were trained on the anti-discrimination examination;
– amendments were made to the Procedure, Section IV was supplemented with a new paragraph with the following content: “An anti-discrimination examination of the sealed items, which can potentially participate in the competitive selection of textbooks and manuals to be published at the expense of the state budget, must be carried out”;
– in 2021, all educational literature and educational programs submitted for the seal assignment of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine were subject to an anti-discrimination examination.
Also, the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine is developing the guidelines for higher and postgraduate education institutions and research institutions on the mandatory anti-discrimination examination of educational and scientific publications.
According to information received in response to an inquiry to the State Research Institution “Institute of Modernization of the Content of Education”:
– during the competitive selection of textbooks in 2021 – 2022 for general education institutions, an anti-discrimination examination of textbooks was carried out: 5th grade – 141 textbooks, 9th grade – 144 textbooks;
– anti-discrimination requirements for educational literature are aimed at identifying and eliminating all features that may lead to discrimination, particularly on the basis of gender. The guidelines of the anti-discrimination examination and the certification program were developed on the basis of domestic research in this field and international UNICEF reports on cases of discrimination in textbooks of different countries of the world;
– thanks to the anti-discrimination examination in the materials of educational literature, the ratio of male and female images changed, the number of examples of tolerant attitude towards people of different sexes, health conditions, other races and religions, human self-realization regardless of gender increased, which allowed to shift discriminatory historical and modern discourses.
However, as stated in the State Strategy for ensuring equal rights and opportunities for women and men for the period until 2030, approved by Order No. 752-r of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine dated 12 August 2022 (Analysis of the current state, main problems and trends in the field of ensuring equal rights and opportunities women and men. Education and training):
“… in Ukraine, gender-based discrimination still persists in classes such as “Manual Labour”, “Defence of Ukraine”, and a low level of gender sensitivity of educators is observed”.
In addition, the State Strategy clearly outlines problems in education that need to be solved, such as:
insufficient consideration of gender aspects during the formation and implementation of educational policy, which leads to the persistence of gender stereotypes and discriminatory content of educational materials at all educational levels;
low representation of girls among students of STEM education (science, technology, engineering, mathematics), which limits their employment opportunities in the high-paying areas of economic activities;
limited access to lifelong learning through formal and informal education of certain population categories, primarily women living in rural areas, elderly women, women with disabilities, HIV-infected women, representatives of the Roma national minority, other categories of the population being victims of multiple discrimination, etc.
So, to sum it up, at the moment we have significant positive results on the way to the implementation of Ukraine’s commitments in the direction of Ukraine’s European and Euro-Atlantic course in ensuring the principles of gender equality in education. At the same time, the present-day security challenges have put many planned events on hold. Taking into account the hostilities in the territory of Ukraine and all the grave consequences that martial law implies, the priorities and activities of both the public and the non-public sector have been reformatted, and efforts are aimed at preserving the lives and health of people and the state integrity; at the same time, the issue of the quality gender-sensitive educational process should remain in the focus of the state.
In the next part, read more about the Gender Equality Implementation Strategy in Education until 2030 and the action plan for 2022 – 2024 aimed at its implementation.
