STEM Education in India – Paving the Way for Our Girls

1. STEM Education in India – Paving the Way for Our Girls The ‘Make in India’ initiative by our honourable Prime Minister intends to make our country a prominent manufacturing hub of global standards. This requires creating a vast pool of highly skilled workforce who can adopt modern practices around innovation. Intelligent quotient of our youth plays a remarkable role here. India’s academic institutions are adopting the best practices to enhance the skill level of students. Major emphasis is put on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (termed together as STEM) to create highly skilled graduates who can lead India to innovation. Since this pedagogy is relatively new, there are many challenges that the education industry has to face in enhancing the popularity of STEM education in India . One of the biggest challenges is to encourage the participation of girls in STEM based curriculum. A nation’s socio-economic growth is possible only when both men and women show equal participation in the development process. Non participation of women in the

2. technological innovation can create a disturbing imbalance which is not good for the society, the country and the women themselves. The traditional patriarchal society always envisions women in some gender defined roles which leads to a deeply biased workplace. This contribute to women leaving jobs not only in STEM disciplines, but other streams as well. In fact, most of the girls do not even get a chance to pursue the basic education. Further, girls hardly get involved into any research or scientific based job as their families pose a restriction. While they favour boys and willingly invest in their education, they expect girls to stay behind doors and plan to save for their dowry. Amidst everything – family responsibility, maternity break, safety concerns, longer working hours for research, etc. – impose restrictions on them. Since STEM education in India is more of a boy’s club, the working pattern favours the same. It’s time to modify this traditional culture and create flexible spaces to accommodate more female STEM aspirants. StemBridge Labs believes that every child is equal and must be given equal opportunities to succeed. Educational institutions, government agencies, and society must work together to encourage more girls to actively participate in STEM. Reference Link: http://stembridgelabs.com/blog/stem-education-in-india-paving-the-way-for-our-girls/