Students at Chiping County Experimental Elementary School perform at a gender educational event in East China's Shandong Province on March 26.(Photo: IC)

A gender equality campaign by Tianjin education authorities was criticized by gender experts on Sunday for actually reinforcing gender inequality.

The North China municipality launched the trial gender campaign at the end of 2016 at some experimental schools, but experts specializing in gender equality identified problems in their investigation of the campaign, China Women's News reported on Wednesday.

The report cited a elementary teacher who held a "let's make friends"-themed meeting to improve equal and friendly relations between genders. 

At the meet, the teacher used the well-intended terms nanzihan, or real man, and xiaonüsheng, or little girl, that experts said only served to mislead students and strengthen ancient stereotypes.

"There are obvious flaws in such teaching methodologies," Ke Qianting, a researcher on gender education and professor at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, told the Global Times on Sunday.

Ke said she agreed with the investigators, saying that the terms supported "outdated views that regulate how a boy and a girl should behave."

Ke advocated new and better gender equality curriculums and teaching assistance for teachers.

Better gender equality education can help prevent bullying on campus, especially those cases related to identification, Ke said.

"For example, a girl behaves like a boy and other students consider her strange, which can lead to isolation and even develop into a case of bullying," she said.

Tianjin's Working Committee on Children and Women, Tianjin Municipal Education Commission and Tianjin's Women's Federation are responsible for implementing gender equality education in the city's elementary and middle schools.