To better embed gender equity education in special education schools, the Center for Gender Empowerment and Sexual Assault Prevention at National University of Tainan, commissioned by the K-12 Education Administration, worked with 14 national special education schools to plan and carry out a gender empowerment and incident prevention program. The Center held an achievement showcase on January 21 and 22, inviting the K-12 Education Administration, subject experts, advisory committee members and staff from the participating schools to share results and build capacity together.
Director-General Peng Fu-yuan of the K-12 Education Administration made time to attend and encourage participants. In his remarks he welcomed the program, which helps special education schools implement gender equity education more thoroughly, and hoped every educator would do their part to understand students' needs and provide better, friendlier gender equity education.
At the showcase, the 14 special education schools presented their results at exhibition booths. Besides sharing measures and outcomes, they exchanged views with principals and directors from other schools and held group discussions on future gender empowerment plans, so that perspectives from different angles could be incorporated into each school's implementation plan. Executive Director Huang Yi-bee of the Covenants Watch and Section Head Yen Chih-ying of Nanzi Special Education School gave talks on the CRPD and on implementing the 12-Year Basic Education gender equity curriculum in special education schools.
Section Chief Tsai Chih-ming of the Indigenous and Special Education Division hosted the event and listened to each school's presentation on its distinctive work and future plans. He said he could deeply sense how much the principals and teachers care about their students, and their willingness to try programs they had not previously taken part in so as to improve conditions for students in special education.
Principal investigator Lu Ming-chen of the NUTN Department of Education explained that the program reverses the traditional top-down pattern of supervisory visits following a gender-related incident, adopting instead a bottom-up approach centered on the needs of students in special education: reviewing each school's background, particular conditions and the differing needs of teachers and students, integrating gender equity education into school-based curricula, teaching and policy, and helping each school build a response plan suited to its own character. She thanked the 14 participating schools, whose work has advanced a friendlier campus, improved incident prevention, and raised gender awareness among all involved.
