The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) lauded the Department of Education (DepEd) for the recent reiteration and strict implementation of the Gender-Responsive Basic Education Policy.
This comes after a series of reported incidents in schools where students and teachers were both discriminated and subjected to gender-based exclusion because of their gender identity and expressions.
DepEd emphasized through several policy issuances that the center of basic education in the Philippines is the student, specifically the children.
The Gender-Responsive Basic Education Policy aims to enable DepEd to implement gender-mainstreaming in education to address both persistent and emerging issues related to gender and sexuality in basic education, to promote the protection of children from all forms of gender-related violence, abuse, exploitation, discrimination, and bullying, and to promote gender equality and non-discrimination in the workplace and within DepEd.
"The recent adoption of the Rights-Based Education Framework for Philippine Basic Education emphasizes the duty of schools, learning centers, and offices to respect, protect, fulfill, and actively promote the full range of rights of children," according to CHR Executive Director, Atty Jacqueline Ann de Guia.
The said policy covers DepEd officers and employees; officers and employees of private elementary, junior, and senior high schools; and students of public and private elementary, junior, and senior high schools, and of learning centers for Special Education and Alternative Learning Systems and laboratories of State Universities and Colleges, and Local Universities and College.
"We remind educators and educational institutions that gender issues have an impact on the realization of the right to education," De Guia added.
