Ombudsman for Equality

How to draw up an operational equality plan in educational institutions

Equality plan is a collaborative effort

The Equality Act puts educational institutions under an obligation to draw up a gender equality plan as a collaborative effort involving staff and student representatives.

The principal of the educational institution is responsible for setting up a gender equality working group or delegating preparation of the gender equality plan to the existing working group. The working group shall preferably be comprised of both males and females as well as students of different ages and classes. Training on equality issues may be organised for the group by inviting an expert to give a lecture on equality and the preparation of an equality plan.

An equality plan that has been drawn up only by members of personnel does not meet with the requirements of the Equality Act concerning operational gender equality plans in educational institutions.

Gender equality assessment

According to the Equality Act, a gender equality plan of an educational institution must contain an assessment of the current gender equality situation in the institution and of any related problems.

To assess the actual gender equality situation in the educational institution, it is advisable to carry out the survey among students and educational personnel by means of, for instance, a questionnaire study. The most important areas for consideration in the survey are the implementation of gender equality in student selection, organization of teaching and evaluation of study performance. Establishing the extent to which students experience that equality has been achieved in the institution is important. The assessment can also make use of existing statistics, if the data is broken down by gender.

Measures to be taken

According to the Equality Act, a gender equality plan in an educational institution must include necessary measures to be taken to promote equality.

Each educational institution shall prepare a gender equality plan that corresponds to its own individual needs and focuses on measures considered important. This is a continuous development process where new, emerging questions are constantly requiring answers. It is better to concentrate efforts on finding remedies for a few shortcomings than to try to solve too many problems simultaneously. Actors, measures to be taken including the persons responsible, and a time frame within which the shortcomings are to be remedied, shall be included in the equality plan.

Particular attention shall be paid to measures aimed at preventing and eliminating sexual harassment and gender-based harassment.

Educational institutions are advised to draw up clearly defined instructions on dealing with sexual harassment and gender-based harassment. The instructions shall contain, among others, definitions of the concepts of sexual harassment and gender-based harassment, the measures a person who has been the victim of harassment may take, who she/he can turn to and how the personnel of the educational institution should deal with such of situations.

Review of the implementation of measures

According to the Equality Act, a gender equality plan must contain a review of the implementation and results of the previous plan.

Gender equality plan as part of another plan

Pursuant to the Equality Act, the gender equality plan may be incorporated into the school curriculum or other plan that will be drawn up by the educational institution. A gender equality plan aiming at the development of the operation of the educational institution should not, however, be incorporated into the personnel equality plan that is required from the institution as a workplace community.

Updating intervals of gender equality plans

According to the Equality Act, the gender equality plan shall be updated annually. The Equality Act allows for local agreements, enabling institutions to agree upon an update schedule of at least once every three years. The needs of the educational institution or measures recorded in the gender equality plan may, however, require an annual update. The interval for preparing and updating the equality plan should be specified in the plan.

Approval of gender equality plans

A gender equality plan shall be approved according to the rules of procedure of the educational institution. This should also appear from the plan.

Communicating equality plans

It is important to communicate the introduction and different stages of the work. It is advisable that a gender equality plan aiming at the development of the operation of an educational institution is communicated to students, personnel and parents of underage students.