joci
Gender
Experiences in IT@School, an ICT enabled education project of Kerala,
India
P R Raji
Research and Documentation
Officer, Society for Promotion of Alternative Computing and Employment,
Kerala, India
rajipraman@gmail.com
Arun M
Secretary, Free Software
Foundation of India
colonel.m@gmail.com
The
turn of the century saw the emergence of a global partnership
committed to time bound goals for poverty eradication and sustainable
development. The Millennium Declaration signed by over 147 nations
recognises the pivotal role of information and communication
technologies in accelerating the development process and it resolves
to make its benefits available to all. It was followed by a spurt of
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) based activities
across the world. The Indian state of Kerala broke new ground with
the launching of IT@School, a project for ICT enabled education in
schools and Akshaya1,
a project for
e-literacy.
Kerala
and women
Kerala,
the south western state of India is well known through
the writings of the Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen which discussed its
experience of development. The state's performance in social
development which is on par with the developed countries has led to
countless research.
The
gender development indicators of Kerala, such as sex ratio (1058
females for 1000 males), life expectancy for women (73.1 years) show
that the women in Kerala have a better status. When we look into
women participation in the work place (15.8%) or their political
presence (less than 10%), we find that the situation is far from
equal2.
The norms and restrictions on women make them disadvantaged when it
comes to their participation in the social, economic and political
spheres. Expectations of women to nurture the family through
housework, care for the children and the elderly etc. are very rigid
in Kerala society. Reflections in this article need to be read in
this social context.
Gender
divide and IT@School
The
Government of Kerala launched projects like Akshaya and IT@School
with the objective of addressing the digital divide in the state.
Although there was no perspective on gender, these projects were
expected to enable women's access to information society and the
information economy.
In
terms of numbers, both projects show high level of women
participation. But what quality of change this has brought about
needs to be analysed further. This paper specifically looks into the
experience of women in IT@School
project.
IT@School
is the largest ICT education project in India. It was launched based
on the recommendations of an expert committee. The recommendation was
to empower teachers to use ICT as a tool to assist education. Since
IT skills were lacking among teachers and students, the project was
started with extensive training programmes for teachers and IT was
introduced as a subject of study at the high school level.
Over 80,000 teachers have been trained and each year half a million
students are introduced to ICT3.
The project is also noted for its deployment of Free and Open source
software (FOSS)4.
IT@School
gave women unprecedented entry into ICT by virtue of the fact that
women constitute 67% of the teachers in Kerala. It was mandatory for
all the teachers to gain ICT skills. This in turn gave an impetus to
the ICT awareness and skill development of women teachers in Kerala.
Table
1: Gender disaggregated data of high school teachers in Kerala
(2002-2003)
Male
Female
Total
Govt.
high schools
12335
19919
32254
Govt.
Aided schools
15507
35080
50587
Private
schools
1333
4583
5916
Total
29175
59582
88757
Table:2 Gender
disaggregated data of high school students in Kerala (2002-2003)
Boys
Girls
Total
802454
785484
158793
Purpose
and methods
The
high level of enthusiasm
and involvement shown by women teachers created an interest in
studying the
gender dynamics of IT@School.
The study looks into the changes that the project brought in the
women teachers and the challenges they faced.
Interviews
and group discussions were held with 22 teachers who are involved in
the project. The teachers are in the age group of 30-50 years.
Discussions were also held with the project leadership. Documents
relating to IT@School were also reviewed
for this study.
Managerial
Structure and participation of women at different levels
Kerala
state is divided into 14 regions or revenue districts. IT@School
Project is headquartered at the capital city of Trivandrum. The
project has a pool of school teachers as Master Trainers (MT) who
have been given advanced training in ICT. They lead the
implementation of the project in different districts under the
direction of the State office.
Each school has designated a School IT Coordinator (SITC) and a
Joint School IT Coordinator, to implement the project at the school
level.
Master
Trainers have skills that are on par with those of IT technicians.
Their skill sets include basic administration of computers with
GNU/Linux operating systems, installation and troubleshooting of
computer hardware and software, setting up of small office network,
connecting to the Internet and using various specialised software.
They have also developed strong managerial capacity as each of them
manage IT implementation in 22-30 schools, arrange and execute
training programmes for teachers and support the implementation of
various e governance programmes of the Education Department.
Often they have to plan and execute these activities against great
constraints of time and they also feel responsible for all possible
outcomes.
In
terms of skills, SITCs are on par with the MTs. They provide the same
level of support as that of MTs at the school level. While MTs work
full time in the project, for the SITCs, their responsibilities in
the project are in addition to their regular responsibilities in
school.
Reflections
“My
life
has totally changed by way of learning computers. Earlier, words like
computer, printer, CD etc were mere jargons for me . Today these are
part of my daily life. I go to my class and use them to introduce my
students to great poets and writers in Malayalam.”
-Sujatha,
a School IT Coordinator and Malayalam5
teacher
This
is not an isolated statement. All the teachers we interacted with
shared this excitement that IT@School had brought into their life.
Getting
into the project
“Frankly,
I came to this project without interest. A senior officer proposed my
name for computer training when I was on leave. After I came back to
school I heard the shocking news that I should attend a computer
training program at Trivandrum for 12 days. I had the desire to learn
computer but as a women it was difficult for me to stay out of my
family. So I requested him to send some other person but he refused. So
I had to attend that program”.
-One
of the early Master Trainers of IT@School
In
the initial phase of the project, the teachers were hand-picked by
the authorities based on the leadership skills they had exhibited.
Given an option, many of the women would have opted out for reasons
similar to that described above.
This
comment of a woman teacher illustrates the position of an average
woman of Kerala regarding acquiring ICT skills, “In
my home we have a computer and my husband and children know how to
use it. My husband used to call me several times to teach me but I
always escaped.”
Though
the recruitment of teachers by the project can be perceived as
undemocratic, this mandatory6
requirement led to more women teachers entering the project.
Reclaiming
technology
As
the statistics shows (Table 3) over 50% SITCs are women. The general
notion among the Master Trainers-male and female- is that women SITCs
perform much better than their male counterparts. This clearly
debunks the popular myth that technology is for men.
The
statistics also bring our attention to the regional variations in
women representation, particularly the fact that in the northern
districts women participation falls far below 50% mark. At the same
time, in central Kerala, women participation is over 70%. The social
and cultural differences in these regions may account for the
difference. This requires further analysis and intervention.
It
is also noted that among Master Trainers, women participation is very
low. In the early phase of the project, women participation was
limited. Even though more women were trained in the later phase,
they could not become MTs because there was no further recruitment at
the MT level.
Table
3: District wise representation of women at SITC and MT levels
Despite
all this evidence that women can perform equally if not better in
using ICT, the myths continue. “In my class, boys are better
than girls when it comes to solving technical problems”, is a
common comment heard from teachers. They are not able to understand
the reason for this difference.
Powered
by ICT - Improving self confidence and self esteem
“Earlier my son would not let me
tamper with the computer, saying I might do some damage and this
greatly disappointed me. When I learnt Linux based applications from
the project, it was my turn to teach my son how Linux works. I felt
proud seeing the surprise on his face when I installed Linux at home”.
-An
SITC and mother of an Engineering student
This
interesting quote is not isolated. It illustrates the existing gender
relations in Kerala society. IT@School
greatly contributed to creating a leadership quality in women
teachers. “My stage fright was cured”, “my
patience improved”, “I got the courage to organise
training programmes”, “I get more respect from my
colleagues including men” were some of the statements made by
the women teachers.
New
age Ada Lovelace - Building role models
All
the women teachers narrated how they were inspired and attracted by
the work of women Master Trainers. The women Master Teachers enjoy
better recognition and respect among their peers. The teachers
realise that they too can handle technology and aspire for the same
level of recognition. Although women are few in number among Master
Trainers, the example set by them has created confidence among other
women teachers leading to the very high level of participation of
teachers at the school level.
Given
the socio cultural context in Kerala, many women teachers have
inhibitions in seeking the support of male Master Trainers. Having
greater women representation at the Master Trainers level could
address this issue.
Sailing
against the wind - The challenges
“My children would be waiting for
me at the doorstep in the evenings, hungry and famished when I'm busy
attending to computer work in my school, because there is no one else
to do it”.
The
biggest challenge for the Master Trainers and the SITCs lies in
striking a balance between the demands of home and work. IT@School
demands more time including weekly holidays of teachers. They are
often held up in the evenings with training or providing service
support that returning home at an assigned time is impossible. Safe
transportation is an issue for those who don't have their own
vehicles. Arriving late invites the displeasure of the family.
For
a professional, this may be a routine situation. But in the case of
women school teachers who supposedly have regular hours of work with
lot of free time for the family, this becomes problematic. Teaching
is perceived by the family and the society as suitable for women
because it fits in with the gender stereotype of women as home
makers. In this scenario, IT@School
presents more challenges for women.
“ I
cannot switch off the phone even when I am at home. I keep receiving
calls day and night from teachers. I cannot ask them to call me in
the morning. I feel awkward attending to calls related to work from
male teachers at night. It is all it takes to start a quarrel in the
family”.
While
the project helped to expand the network of teachers by making them
leaders in the project, it has also led to erosion of their privacy.
The civic sense regarding privacy is so weak that the teachers feel
bound to attend to phone calls at odd hours. Prevailing social norms
regarding friendship between opposite sexes also adds to the problem.
Another
serious challenge is that of overburdening of teachers particularly
SITCs. Since they are not exclusively working for IT@School
project, they have to manage their regular teaching activities along
with additional responsibilities of the project. All computer related
activities including data entry are assigned to these teachers. The
feeling that they are responsible for the entire IT infrastructure in
schools, places a mental burden on them.
Mobility
is a concern of the Master Trainers who have to travel extensively
across the district for training and support. Leaving families behind
for days together and their personal safety while having to use
public transport system at odd hours are some of the serious concerns
which the project has not addressed.
Conclusion
IT@School
has played an important role in bridging the digital divide in
Kerala. Beyond ICT awareness, the project has created a situation where
ICT has become a part of the daily activities of the
beneficiaries. Although the project did not have a focus on women, women
became its main beneficiaries. The project also tremendously
benefited from their participation. This has been acknowledged by
most of the Master Trainers including men and women. It is important
that the project leadership recognises this fact and communicates it
to the larger society.
The
experiences of women in IT@School
shows that ICT projects that aim to build a knowledge society cannot
afford a gender blind approach. From the experiences shared by the
teachers it is clear that the existing social norms and gender
constructs pose additional challenges to them.
At
a time when even the trade unions of teachers have poor
representation of women, IT@School
project has created 2000-plus future women leaders. The
experience from IT@School
should serve well in the design of ICT4D projects and public policy
formation. The women teachers of IT@School
would be rewarded for their pain and trouble if the state would only
consider the existing gender divide in the society while planning and
implementing its ICT4D programmes.
1Akshaya
is an e-literacy programme of Government of Kerala, India launched in
2002. Under this project, one person from every family in Kerala will
be familiarized with the basic use of computers. Around 2000 community
telecentres called Akshaya e- kendras have been set up across Kerala,
to provide this training. These centres also act as access points for
various ICT based services. Each centre caters to around 1000-3000
families.
2Census
2001; Economic review, Government of Kerala 2002 & 2003; NFHS-2
3IT@School
project imparts skills in office productive tools like open office,
Internet based communication tools like browsers, mail clients,
edutainment applications and computer programming.
4IT@School
and free software in education: the Kerala model/Biju Prabhakar and
Arun M: Information Society and Development- The Kerala Experience-
Antony Palackal, Wesley Shrum 2007
5The
language used in Kerala and Lakshadweep
6To
achieve the vision of IT enabled education, it was necessary that all
teachers have basic IT skills. This made it mandatory for all teachers
to participate in the project. IT education programmes in schools
elsewhere in India do not have this mandatory feature as they don't
share the vision of IT enabled education.