The Commonwealth of Learning supported the development of a gender policy for the Open School, Bangladesh Open University (BOU), during a three-day workshop on “Gender Mainstreaming and Development of Gender Policy for Open School,” in May 2018. The National Institute for Open Schooling (NIOS), India, participated in the workshop and shared their experience in developing gender policy.

The discussions focused on how gender can be mainstreamed in BOU Open School in functional areas, including academic, administration, learner support services and evaluation. The 32 participants noted that appropriate policy can strengthen the school’s performance for achieving a gender-sensitive open schooling. The workshop also developed a plan of action to implement the policy.

COL Senior Adviser: Open Schooling, Dr Johan Hendrikz, said: “The development of a gender policy for the BOU Open School will support the efforts of gender mainstreaming in Bangladesh. The fact that two major providers of open schooling in Asia-NIOS and BOU Open School-now have a gender policy, is setting an example for other open school providers in the Commonwealth.”