Nation

GABRIELA SLAMS DEPED FOR SEXIST LESSONS AND MODULES LITTERED WITH ERRORS

/ 19 October 2020

WOMEN’S group Gabriela has denounced the Department of Education for allowing lessons that are ‘sexist’ and erroneous.

GABRIELA Deputy Secretary General Joan Salvador said the DepEd should stop lessons that tend to stereotype.

“Within only a week of classes in the ‘new normal,” the Department of Education has revealed not just how disastrously unprepared they are for the resumption of classes—they come to us with backward and dangerous ideals as well,” she said in a statement.

“Not only are their existing modules verifiably littered with numerous errors, they contain a breadth of sexist and misogynistic lessons too,” she added.

She claimed that some modules of the DepEd describe men as brave and independent while women were the opposite.

“In many of DepEd’s modules, they describe men to be ‘strong, logical, brave,”  and in the same breath call women weak, dependent, fragile.. Are these the values we want to teach our children? That women are weak, feeble, and voiceless?”asked Salvador.

“This cannot be part of the new normal,” she added. “There is a pressing need to not only expose, but completely eradicate these forms of sexist stereotyping in our educational system. These ideals, drilled into our children’s heads early on, are what shape individuals who value women as less than human compared to men.”

She said that these lessons “reduce our children’s perception of humanity to mere stereotypes”.

“Men grow up pressured to be stoic, to never reveal their emotions and to be entitled over women. Women are taught to limit their own potential, and in turn, limit the potential of other women,” the group said.