In February, VVOB and the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE) launched a toolkit that empowers preschool teachers to challenge and prevent gender stereotypes in young children. The international support has been overwhelming, from UNESCO’s Teacher Task Force and the Brookings Institution to the UN Girls’ Education Initiative, so much so it reached Belgian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Development Cooperation Alexander De Croo’s ears. Girls’ empowerment being a central element in his policies, he gladly received a copy of the toolkit, which was largely funded by Belgium.
Minister Alexander De Croo (right): “Too often do gender stereotypes prevent empowerment of young girls and women. Children are often unconsciously pushed in a certain study field, job, income. That way, inequality and discrimination is perpetuated. By using VVOB’s toolkit, we can challenge harmful gender stereotypes right out of the gate and genuinely give girls equal opportunities.”
International studies show that at the age of seven, children have indeed already adopted persistent stereotypical standards and ideas about what it means to be a man or a woman. For girls in particular this can have harmful consequences for their further development. Sven Rooms, General Director of VVOB (left): “Schools can either confirm these stereotypes or they can challenge them. Armed with our toolkit, preschool teachers can make sure our children are spared from limiting gender stereotypes and that they can develop to their full potential”.
The GRP4ECE toolkit (‘gender-responsive pedagogy for early childhood education’) is a first in the fight for equality, because it tackles gender stereotypes at preschool level already. The toolkit has been shared with 400 policy makers in South-Africa. VVOB and partners will first implement the toolkit in Zambia. After that it will be rolled out on a larger scale in Africa.
More concretely, the toolkit offers practical advice and low-cost tips to teachers on how to tackle gender stereotypical behaviour and ideas, from either the preschoolers or the teachers themselves, in a playful manner. The toolkit was developed in partnership with the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE) and was endorsed by the African Union and UNESCO.
You can find the toolkit here.