With reports of discrimination cases in schools, the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) has lauded the Department of Education’s (DepEd) order for strict implementation of its Gender-Responsive Basic Education Policy.

The CHR said that the Gender-Responsive Basic Education Policy, or DepEd Order No 32, s.2017, “seeks to enable the DepEd to undertake gender-mainstreaming in education to address both enduring and emerging gender and sexuality-related issues 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 the DepEd.”

It said policy covers officials and employees of the DepEd; officials and employees of private elementary, junior, and senior high schools; and learners of public and private elementary, junior, and senior high schools, and of learning centers for Special Education and Alternative Learning Systems and laboratory schools of State Universities and Colleges, and Local Universities and Colleges.

In a statement, CHR Executive Director Jacqueline Ann de Guia said DepEd’s reiteration and strict implementation of the policy is timely given the series of reported incidents in schools where students and teachers alike were discriminated and subjected to gender-based exclusion because of their gender identities and expressions.

De Guia cited that in one reported incident, a transgender girl was forced to cut her hair and wear a uniform for male students.

"CHR hopes that the policy directive reduces, if not totally eliminates, gender-based violence and discrimination in schools by genuinely ensuring that education institutions remain learner-friendly and are progressively working towards gender quality in educational outcomes," she said.

"We remind educators and education institutions that gender issues have an impact on the realization of the right to education," she stressed.

"Critical in understanding this dynamic is the intersectionality of issues, i.e. on how sex and gender issues are tightly connected with other social factors, such as age, class, disability, ethnicity, race, religion, and other status," she said.

She added that the CHR is looking forward to a "meaningful implementation" of the DepEd policy as well as other related directives “that respect, protect, and promote the rights and dignity of children and learners.”