BOLIVIA-EDUCATION: Machos Students Against Co-education

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Juan Carlos Rocha

LA PAZ, Feb 18 1997 (IPS) - The sorry tale of ‘macho’ students at the all-male Colegio Ayacucho de la Paz fighting against the admission of female pupils has underlined the fact that discrimination against women has not ended in Bolivia.

The trouble began when the government incorporated the notion of universal co-education into an educational reform law that took effect this year. In the city of Ayacucho, however, the new legislation ran into opposition from students who wanted to maintain the “men only” tradition at their high school, an institution characterized by military discipline.

The Ayacucho students went on strike briefly to protest plans for co-aducation and threatened violence, including rape, against any young women who set their minds to enrolling at the “all-macho” school.

“We are not going to let any girls destroy our tradition. Ayacucho has always been an aggressively masculine high school. If they want to get into this school they’d better be prepared to accept the consequences…” declared a furious former pupil, currently in charge of the entrance gate.

The attitude of rebellious students won the endorsement of the alumni, and some teachers made a case for excluding women based on the lack of “suitable infrastructure” – meaning the absence of women’s toilet facilities.

Government reaction came swiftly. Authorities transfered teachers to other schools while dismissing the principal of Ayacucho on grounds that he encouraged his student body to resist implementation of coeducation.

Nine female students, of an original group of 22 who planned to pioneer co-education at Ayacucho, finally abandoned their plans due to parental fears for their safety. The remaining 13 candidates, however, enrolled and have resolved to continue classes despite continued harassment.

One of the female students alleged that she and the others were victims of all manner of threats from male students. Nevertheless, she declared her intention to stay at the school because new laws clearly support coeducation.

“The school is very sexist. The male students want us to go, but we’re not leaving here. Furthermore, we’ll show them that we’re neither better nor worse than they are, but equal…” said a the 16- yearold student.

A 15-yearsold colleague pointed out that the male students at Ayacucho had no reason to fear the presence of women, even though the young coeds were ready to show they were “more intelligent than the boys.”

The discrimination against women at Ayacucho has been interpreted by women’s groups as a reflection of what happens every day in other areas of Bolivian society.

“While these young men threaten rape, their parents perpetrate all kinds of abitrary intellectual and political judgements and try to impede women from exercising their full rights as citizens”, said Sonia Montano, director of a women’s rights group.

“Panic in the face of equality is a sure trait of a sexist culture,” Montano said. ” Whether these panicked reactions are expressed crassly or with kid gloves, both tendencies feed on one another.”

The flip side of the gender coin in Bolivia brought no problems to formerly all-girl schools which opened their doors to male students this year. All were enrolled without any disturbance.

The government, emphasizing its determination not to give in to the resistance manifested at Ayacucho, has reiterated that it will not retract its decision to implement coeducation in all the country’s high schools.

Carlos Orozco, the national Director of Education assured Bolivians that “we are going to abandon any sort of traditionalism based on sexism, and will continue to emphasize the importance of women in the process of change that the country is experiencing.”