Discrimination in schools and educational institutions

A young man is sitting inside the school on the stairs.

The Equality Act prohibits educational institutions and other communities offering education and training from treating a person less favourably than others on the basis of gender, gender identity or gender expression in

  • student selections
  • the organisation of teaching
  • the evaluation of study performance
  • any other regular activity of the educational institution or community
  • a manner that is referred to in the regulation regarding the general prohibition of discrimination.

The actions of an educational institution will be considered prohibited discrimination if a person is subjected to

  • sexual or gender-based harassment and the educational institution or community neglect to take the steps available to prevent continued harassment. However, the educational institution or other community's responsibility only begins when a responsible representative of the institution has been informed of the harassment.
  • discrimination in a manner that is referred to in the Equality Act based on orders or instructions to discriminate.

The prohibition of discrimination in the Equality Act does not apply to the contents of the tuition or arranging the education. Therefore the educational institution does not have a duty to provide information regarding the structure of the education, the syllabus, the degrees or their contents.