Schools have the potential of playing a transformative role in changing the prevalent patriarchal notions and unequal gender relations. But very often cclassrooms serve as key social and cultural spaces for the production of a range of gendered performances and relations. The teacher has the key role to provide a safe and gender friendly space for boys and girls to express themselves and simultaneously develop notions of gender justice among students. A study was conducted to anlayse the perceptions of teachers about gender equality. Focus group discussion and interviews with teachers were used to collect the data. Interviews with 48 teachers- 24 male and 24 female, belonging to 24 schools in Malappuram and Thrissur districts of Kerala, 12 at primary and 12 at secondary levels revealed that majority of teachers lack gender awareness and the concept of gender and its implications are unknown to several of them. The findings of the study revealed that the perceptions of teachers are gendered with traditional concepts regarding gender roles of men and women and subject choices of girls and boys. Teachers though following the gendered practices do so without realizing that their behaviours are gendered. Gender equality according to a few teachers is only a utopian idea and some of them even declared ‘men are men and women are only women’. Such statements highlight the extent to which they have internalized the notions of men as the norm and women as the inferior other. They accept and uphold the popular gender norms regarding masculinity and femininity and unknowingly transmit them to the future generations. Based on the findings of the study, the author suggests gender equality as a prerequisite for teachers to ensure gender sensitized pedagogic practices and classroom behaviours of teachers.