Mitigating the Barriers of the African Girl Child in STEM Requires Concerted Stakeholder Efforts.
By Jackline Macharia
On a global scale, there lies a vast gender gap in the number of female students and professionals in STEM fields. Key causes are gender stereotypes and individual choices. We live in a patriarchal society where the woman bears the burden of excess domestic duties such as cooking, cleaning, and tending to the sick members of the society. Notably, women’s contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) remains largely unaccounted for. On the other hand, their male counterparts are allowed to attend school as girls are married off or sent out to work at a tender age.
This year, the two-day 2nd International Conference on Girls Education in Africa themed: Towards Effective Approaches for Girl’s engagement and Excellence-Preparing African Girls for the 21st Century was convened by the Forum for African Women Educationalists-Kenyan Chapter virtually. The conference graced by a consortium of high-level government officials from Africa, Ministers of Education, Civil Society Organizations, the AU, representatives of the United Nations, the Youth and the Academia, provided an opportunity to take stock of milestones achieved and engage stakeholders in deliberations meant to steer the active participation of girls in STEM. The conference highlighted themes, including investing in girls’ active participation in STEM, quality Technical and Vocational Education (TVET), teacher capacity building, and education policies for STEM.
The 2016 Gender Gap Report published by the World Economic Forum shows global underrepresentation of female students in STEM graduates, with only 16% being female students and 30% male students. This is attributed to negative stereotyping, where boys are perceived to be more competent in STEM fields than girls. Traditionally, careers such as engineering, medicine, aviation were associated with boys while girls were left to take the fields that were considered more feminine, including tailoring, teaching, and hospitality. Although notable progress has been made in encouraging girls to pursue STEM careers, gender parity in the entry, retainment, and completion of girls remains minimal. Furthermore, girls are affected disproportionately because their domestic roles leave them exhausted, making them lose concentration in class. They also have less time to revise than boys, which leads to poor performance, particularly in science subjects which require a lot of concentration.
There is need for governments and stakeholders to invest in capacity-building strategies for STEM teachers to increase their efficiency in promoting a culture where girl-child education is valued. Conducting mentorship programs are bound to raise awareness and increase knowledge about the gender issues that can be employed. African governments realize the need to employ gender-responsive strategies to make education sustainable and equitable. For instance, the Ugandan government passed a policy on affirmative action for girls’ entry into universities and employment fields. Furthermore, STEM programs such as “Educate to Innovate” in Uganda have motivated and inspired students to excel in STEM subjects. We need to realize that STEM is paramount in liberating Africa from technological backwardness and usher the continent to a science and technology-driven future.
Worth noting, the use of gender biased approaches to learning exacerbates girls’ exclusion in STEM. Learning materials reflect science as a subject for boys, evident in the choice of examples and illustrations used. The text uses females’ illustrations to refer to matters of reproduction, market vending, teaching, and vending. This insensitive choice of examples is gender-biased, and it only serves to make girls feel like they are in the wrong field. There is need to adopt knowledge-centered methods and eliminate traditional curriculum and teacher-centered approaches that demoralize the girl-child. Using textbooks that demonstrate women mixing chemicals and in energy fields boosts girls’ morale to learn science and let go of the stereotype that science subjects are a boy’s field.
Government buy-in can go along way in ensuring girls’ participation in STEM. We must realize that attaining this goal is not a one-person agenda but rather a shared responsibility. Political goodwill goes a long way in accelerating the efforts of other stakeholders. Working with the government through the ministries in charge of education is an entry point if we want to address the stereotypes that are in the curriculum. By pushing them to review the extent to which the curriculum exacerbates the exclusion of girls in STEM, girls will have a change of attitude and encourage them to take up scientific fields. In 2018, the Cameroonian Head of state declared that arrangements have been made to integrate young girls into scientific fields.
The lack of role models for girls to emulate has pushed women out of science-related fields and careers. Noteworthy, women are poorly represented among the teaching staff of TVETs, where they represent only about 7%. The low number of female teachers means that the few female students rarely have female models to emulate. It is the responsibility of the ministries in charge of education to make deliberate efforts to hire female teachers within TVET institutions. Without a doubt, female role models in the teaching staff are an incentive for girls to choose STEM-related career paths.
Participation of girls is critical in achieving meaningful transformation in gender relations and eliminating discrimination faced both in school and that the community level. The African girl is taught to be obedient and submissive, a notion that has negative effects on their participation in class and by extension, performance in national examinations. But with flagship programs such as Tuseme Clubs, FAWE’s initiative for youth empowerment, concerns impeding academic development are addressed. The initiative has empowered girls to solve the problems they undergo. They learn how to express themselves, negotiate, make decisions, boost confidence, and acquire skills to take on responsibilities.
With the world experiencing a paradigm shift from an era of generalists to that of knowledge, there is a growing need for girls to specialize in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. In Nigeria, the Follow-The-Money project is being employed in the grassroots to conduct advocacy against STEM inclined stereotypes which continue to disproportionately affect the girl child. In addition to tracking funding against corruption, the follow-the-money strategy engages informal institutions such as religious leaders, village heads, and family heads to embrace formal education by enrolling their wards in government schools. They need to realize that formal education and possession of academic certificates ensure entry into prestigious jobs. Furthermore, the strategy empowers grassroots people with information such as budgetary allocations and contract details needed to monitor projects and hold officials accountable. However, much religion, culture, societal perception, and value systems dictate the education of the girl child; employing this model is a deliberate and conscious effort in ensuring girls enroll in school and study science-based subjects.
Despite the concerted efforts by the government, the community, and other stakeholders in bridging the gender gap in education and particularly in STEM fields, women and girls are still lagging. We have to realize that societal expectations have dictated boys’ and girls’ careers for a long time, and eliminating this notion is not an easy task. Women continue to play domestic roles which limit their full participation in academics. We must empower our African girls to be strong members of the society and the only way to do this is ensuring they access quality and sustainable education. We can borrow a leaf from countries such as Cameroon, where the government made a public commitment to integrate young girls into scientific fields. With collaboration from governments, civil society organizations, UN entities, and researchers, we can make the goal of girls’ active participation in STEM a reality.