Consultations on
‘ICTS in education - a gender perspective’
(Background and brief for panelists)

We mention below briefly a round-up of important issues in this area and the WSIS draft proposals about them. The brief is only suggestive and meant to kick-off effective consultations. Speakers are free to, rather expected to, bring their full expertise to bear upon the subject and inform and educate the participant and the stakeholders involved in building the Information Society. 

Education has been the greatest leveler. No one disputes that today, even those who may be considered less informed among excluded communities. But the education system itself rides the available ICTs and moulds itself to it. Once education was given orally and then, when writing paper or paper-like techniques evolved, it was increasingly through written means. And then came printing. (Spoken language, writing and printing are all forms of ICT, though the term ‘traditional media’ is often used for them) Only with books becoming easily available did education become a mass phenomenon. By and by, more women got educated and a movement towards gender equality begun. There were public schools, libraries and colleges and universities for all, though often at distant places.

Today, the new ICTs are effecting another fundamental transformation in education in at least two important ways, both of which have important gender implications. 

1. The new ICTs can bring all education content to one’s doorstep. Women, by tradition, have suffered physical constrains; of mobility and access to public places. This has affected the chances of good education for them. It is significant to note that as education evolved using the available ICTs or media, from oral to writing to printing to the new ICTs, the effect was to reduce the physical element in the process. After all, education involves essentially a transfer of information/knowledge. These changes in education systems meant important gains for women education. The new ICTs now can potentially bring any and all education content to the doorstep of every girl and woman, or at least that of her community.

2.  The new ICTs can help shape the education process and content around one’s specific condition and liking. An important disability for women in the present education process is that it is a strait-jacket structure, which is the carry-forward of an age-old system, and hold strong in-built gender biases. But as we said, the new ICTs can make education systems completely malleable. Both the processes and the content can now be more gender sensitive and gender specific.

It is easy to see how the use of the new ICTs in education gives much more equal opportunity to women to get educated. And for women to get quality education is the best way towards all-round gender equality.

 But there still are obvious constraints of capacity, access to technology, systems and content. Many of these constraints are to an extent gender specific and must be addressed by gender sensitive policies and implementation of ‘ICTs in Education’.

While addressing these challenges and possible solutions we can carry out the consultations over the following sub-themes:

Basic IT literacy: Basic IT literacy is soon going to be as important in all activities as reading and writing is today. But as we go about spreading IT literacy, we must take care that it may not be left to the male member of the family to ‘learn computers’ for the basic needs of the family, in the same way it is often considered enough in many excluded communities if the male members have the basic literacy to meet the requirements of the ‘outside world’. Whoever gets literacy gets power within the family, community and the society. Basic IT literacy initiatives therefore should specifically target women and girls.

IT aided education: As we discussed, the education system should take a complete re-look on all its aspects, taking advantage of the new ICTs. Specifically, with the new opportunity of malleable processes and content, the education methods and the content should be re-shaped with greater gender sensitivity and specificity.

Non-formal and continued (life-long) education: Girls often have to drop out of the formal streams of education sooner than boys, due to reasons that are too well known. Even women who are employed find it more difficult to take up skill-enhancement trainings which often mean going to far-off places, or at least sparing more off-work time. The new ICTs offer endless possibilities in the area of non-formal and continued education, which can have important gender implications.

IT education for employment in ICT sector: This area has deliberately been mentioned at the end. The reason is that because of its immediate economic relevance, especially with the Indian experience, it tends to hog all the limelight whenever ICTs and education are mentioned in the same breath, to the exclusion of above areas that are as crucial. But it is no doubt very important. Economic empowerment fast attracts all other empowerments. We have to ensure that the prejudice against girls taking technical subjects is overcome. This calls for early interventions in the schooling processes. There may even be a need for positive-discrimination for girls to take higher IT education.     

 There are many more practical issues; access for women and girls to community IT centers and to even computers within school, training of teachers, both in skills and new attitudes, getting the school managements interested in such drastic changes and so on. So while discussing the possibilities is fine, the panelists may wish to also focus on practical issues like; how best to introduce ICTs into formal education systems, the first steps (which may be first to introduce it to the management and school administrative systems) and such. There are similar practical issues in other areas. But the gender perspective must be highlighted in each context.

 The draft ‘Plan of Action’ for WSIS gives good prominence to ICTs and Education, and also to the gender perspective at many places. (Please see points 19, 20, 21 and 34 among others). But the accent is more on non-discrimination and not so much on proactive steps for using the power of ICTs in Education to take forward the movement toward gender equality and women rights.