In a historic move, Kerala’s State Commission for the protection of Child Rights has ordered that all schools meant exclusively for boys/ girls irrespective of their status whether government, private or aided should be converted to co-education from the next academic session of 2023-24.

The commission has proposed that the government should choke out an action plan for implementing this co-educational model and submit a report within 90 days. The outline of the plan must cover the basic needs such as infrastructure including toilets so that the parents can be taken into confidence before this plan comes into being.

The order came after a plea was filed by one Dr. Issac Paul who argued that gender justice was lacking in such ‘boys only’ and ‘girls only’ schools. The commission found merit and later issued an order which read, “There is no need to teach boys and girls in separate schools in the existing social context. Moreover, the existence of such schools can only be seen as a turning away from advanced education and psychological theories. There is no justification for such schools to exist.”

Stating that the best educational institutions in the world were co-educational, the order mentioned, “International studies on co-ed schools had demonstrated that such schools would instill mutual respect and ensure gender equality while studying in these schools will also help in removing orthodox ideas and encourage boys to respect the opposite gender.”

As of now, the state of Kerala has 280 schools reserved for girls and 164 schools meant only for boys. However, Kerala Education Minister V Sivankutty recently informed that in the past year 11 gender-exclusive government and aided schools were converted into co-educational schools.

It is not limited to this, rather the whole ecosystem of these co-ed schools is being revamped for good as recently some schools have started using gender-neutral uniforms. There are also schools in which the students have stopped using sir and mam and are now addressing their faculty as simply ‘teacher’ irrespective of their gender.