A day after Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that the Left government was not going to decide on school uniforms for children, a boys-only government school in Thiruvananthapuram district on Thursday had a group of girls attending a class wearing gender neutral uniforms. Got mixed with the first batch. The first batch of girl students has been enrolled in class 11 of Government Model Higher Secondary School for Boys, Chala, Thiruvananthapuram.
The move to make the school, which was only for boys for the last 40 years, a blended or co-ed school, has been welcomed by students of both genders. Some freshmen told the media that they came to the school because they wanted to study with the boys.
“Not in favor of how gender is being understood or taught in society at present. We should study together. That’s why I came here to study,” said one of the girls. Some other girl students, who had come from girls’ schools only, expressed similar views and said that they joined there as per their wish. .
One of the parents of a student told the media that their daughter had expressed her desire to study with the boys in the school and hence, they admitted her there. The boys also welcomed the move as they gave a standing ovation to the first batch of girls as they entered through the school gate.
The boys said they would support the decision of their new schoolmates. Meanwhile, IUML MLA MK Munir, who is a well-known critic of the gender neutral policy of the Left government, continued his attack against it by saying that the society and the CPI(M) have not matured to accept it.
Talking to reporters in Kozhikode, Munir said that gender discrimination should be removed, then there should be gender sensitivity and gender justice. “Only then can we bring such a concept (gender neutrality) to a society that lacks maturity. Even the Marxist party is not mature enough for this.
He said that the CM’s reply regarding the uniform has come to a question by LDF MLA KK Selja, which shows that senior party leaders are also asking from where such a policy has come and who has made it. He also welcomed the removal of certain terminology like LGBTQ from the government’s latest education policy, saying he sees it as a positive step.
state general education Speaking to the media in the state capital, Minister V Shivankutty said the government never said that it would compulsorily or forcibly teach boys and girls together. “The Kerala Chief Minister had made it clear in the assembly yesterday that the government is not going to impose gender neutral uniforms or mixed schools on anyone,” Sivankutty said.
He said that local self-government bodies, parent-teacher associations and schools decide and enforce how things are to be run in their respective educational institutions. Vijayan had said in the assembly on Wednesday that the Left government was not going to decide what kind of uniform children should wear in schools. He had said that it is the prerogative of educational institutions to decide what kind of uniform girls and boys should wear.
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