March 19, 2026

Gender Mainstreaming in Education: Expert Technical Engagement & Coalitions

Breakthrough also plays the orchestrator role in proactively driving ecosystem-level change as part of its mission to mainstream gender in education.

Kuldeep

Singh

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We engage and align with key collaborators including central and state governments, education departments, multilateral organisations, civil society partners, school education systems, and communities to advance this collective effort.

To this end we work towards advancing gender equity in education in alignment with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and State Education Policies, and ensure the leveraging and scaling of insights gained from our initiatives in Punjab and Odisha to other regions.

Here’s more on how we work with different governments:

• Breakthrough was engaged by the state government to conduct a formative research in 8 districts for The Department of School Education.  The research included  Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) with Department officials  and  an in-depth analysis of state English and Social Science textbooks for Classes 6-8 to determine how gender is constructed and mediated within the school curriculum. A total of 196 chapters, 2026 pages were reviewed by gender and subject experts from Bangalore, Odisha and Delhi. 
• In Tamil Nadu, Breakthrough conducted a formative study that included textbooks review with a qualitative and quantitative analysis through a gender lens. 
• In the government of the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Breakthrough is partnering with the Directorate of Education of the Union Territory for three years to integrate “Taaron ki Toli”(TKT)  in their government schools for classes 6^th to 8^th. Significant progress has been made with the department investing in printing TKT volume 1  English, Hindi, Gujarati and Marathi. 

India Coalition For Education For Gender Equality

With its long-standing expertise in gender equality and social norm change, Breakthrough together with UNGEI anchors the India Coalition for Education for Gender Equality, a national platform that brings together over 32 civil society organisations, researchers, youth leaders, and academic institutions in a bid  to introduce & strengthen gender transformative education systems.. Together, the Coalition partners currently cover nearly 90% of India’s geography and reach over 50 million adolescents — representing approximately 16% of India’s adolescent population. While India has made significant gains in access to schooling, gender-based barriers persist — adversely affecting life opportunities for girls and young people. These challenges cannot be addressed through isolated programmes alone; they require coordinated, evidence-led, and system-level action. It was this perspective of a collective approach that sparked the origin of The Coalition.

The Coalition prioritises foundational systems-building — developing tools, frameworks, and evidence that governments, institutions, and practitioners can adopt and scale. The key areas of focus include strengthening gender-responsive teaching and learning practices, building shared evidence, indicators, and knowledge resources, influencing education policy, systems, and financing, and supporting inclusive education ecosystems that reach the most excluded.

Global Positioning for Gender Transformative Education 

Breakthrough has been actively contributing to multiple collaboratives at global level, such as the Accelerator for Shifting Gender Norms through Education and the Coalition for Good Schools to bring initiatives which are advancing gender equality in and through education.