• WB South Asian report focuses on need for enhancing females’ access to STEM
• Recommends edu./career opportunities so as to better respond to global challenges and achieve sustainable econ growth and development  

Policy makers should care about science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education for girls and women for many reasons. Societies that understand STEM related topics such as climate change, clean water, and sustainability, are better able to respond to global challenges. Inclusive economic growth makes countries more likely to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). To realise their potential, countries must make available and pursue opportunities for as many of their people as possible.

In this context, Governments and their development partners should strengthen STEM education and advance female participation in the workforce, according to a recently released report titled ‘Engendering Access to STEM Education and Careers in South Asia’. Authored by S. Sosale, G.M. Harrison, N. Tognatta, S. Nakata, and P.M. Gala, and issued by the World Bank (WB), it focused on not only improving STEM related educational and career opportunities, but also removing barriers that have hindered the development of STEM fields both in education and the labour market.

Girls and women in South Asia’s STEM education

The report emphasised that South Asian girls and women face challenges in pursuing STEM at all levels of education. Though the region has made great advances in enrollment, it noted, secondary enrollment and learning achievement lag behind those of leading economies, and that by the time they reach upper secondary education, male and female students have different perceptions of STEM careers: “The transition to upper secondary school might be the biggest indicator of the gender gap in STEM. Though this transition might not reflect the different attitudes toward STEM among boys, girls and their parents, specific tracks for STEM, arts and commerce become available only at this point. Thus, the data clearly shows the point at which girls become underrepresented in STEM subjects. Accordingly, this demarcation point is not when interventions should be targeted since attitudes are already set. Instead, STEM education interventions need to happen much earlier, in primary education.”

Gender disparities prevail in labour force participation. Female participation rates in STEM careers are low in South Asia, whereas those of men are much more likely to reflect global rates. Noting this, the report explained that unemployment rates also provide insights into the labour market for females and those with more advanced qualifications and that unemployment intensifies the underrepresentation of females in the workforce, including in STEM disciplines. The underrepresentation of women in the labour force, especially highly educated females, exacerbates the STEM leak pipeline observed in education, the report pointed out.

With regard to the necessary interventions, the report said that although it is expected that more females will enter the workforce, it will take time, and that policy interventions and cultural shifts will be needed to bring a greater balance to gender representation in STEM and other career fields.

STEM education in Sri Lanka

With regard to the status of STEM education in Sri Lanka, the report said that in a context where Sri Lanka aspires to become globally competitive by integrating technology into every sector of its economy, investing strategically in new technologies, and linking the education system to innovations, the country needs to develop a generation of students with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes required to achieve technological advancements and innovations that enhance productivity in a sustainable way. It acknowledged that the Sri Lankan Government has introduced policies to encourage the demand for education, including free schools, subsidised public transport, scholarships for Grade Five, and a health insurance scheme.

“At the primary level, STEM education is limited to mathematics and environmental studies. A national assessment of Grade Four students in mathematics found that girls scored higher than boys in both 2002 and 2015. Moreover, an assessment of 2019 Grade Five examinations revealed gender differences, with 54% of girls and 46% of boys scoring above the cutoff marks. At the secondary level, in addition to mathematics, students are introduced to science, practical technical skills, and health science. Many schools with computer labs also offer classes in information and communications technology (ICT). National assessments of Grade Eight students in mathematics and science in 2012, 2014, and 2016 indicated that girls outperformed boys in these subjects,” it explained. 

However, when it comes to technical vocational education and training, female access to Tertiary and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) is limited because TVET is considered the domain of males.

Concerning higher education, the report noted that more females graduate from non-STEM streams, such as arts, education, management, commerce, and law, and more males graduate from STEM streams, such as engineering, architecture, and computer science. It recommended that more postgraduate female students graduate with non-STEM than STEM degrees, and that therefore, enrollment among females in STEM postgraduate degrees should be encouraged.

Stressing that although Sri Lanka’s labour force consists of 8.1 million workers, female participation is just 34%. The report identified shortages of teachers in some schools for certain STEM streams, limited infrastructure facilities in some schools to enhance STEM learning, and social perceptions that some occupations are better suited to males as factors that impede females  access to STEM education and careers.

Improving STEM education

The report presented a number of recommendations to improve the overall situation in the South Asian region, with a focus on the relevant data, curricula, teachers, gender stereotyping, STEM educational institutions and career opportunities and the cost of education. 

With regard to improving the curricula, it explained: “To harness contributions from associated sectors, develop and deliver curricula linked to every STEM discipline in tertiary education. Entities from global bodies to local employers can provide formal and informal guidance on course work, lab design and equipment, and even the design of courses, strengthening academic offerings and creating stronger links between students and the sector. Although education and the curricula are generally the responsibility of the Government, interested stakeholders can provide additional resources that support learning and that are aligned with curricula related objectives. Local and regional challenges offer a concrete path to teaching the importance and relevance of STEM in daily life.”

Improving teachers was another key area of recommendations, regarding which the report proposed to strengthen teacher training programmes and to provide the resources to enable schools to have dedicated, qualified science and mathematics teachers in order to ensure that all students have access to STEM education. This, the report said, was critical to building the STEM workforce of the future and to ensure that all segments of the society, including females and underrepresented groups, contribute to STEM based economic development. Requiring training for teachers handling STEM subjects and deploying only these trained teachers to teach the curricula, and stipulating that all teachers desiring to teach STEM subjects have a master’s level degree, were also among the recommendations. Equalising urban-rural competencies in STEM teacher training through real life applications of STEM according to the urban or rural environment was also recommended.

In a context where gender stereotyping also plays a notable role in females in STEM education and careers, the report explained that addressing related gender stereotypes was also crucial. 

To achieve it, it recommended to undertake activities in rural schools to give girls the confidence to pursue STEM education, adopt strategic communication strategies to infuse positive messages about females pursuing STEM fields, frame female friendly policies that enable females to fulfill their professional responsibilities along with their reproductive responsibilities, promote a communications strategy about hopes and aspirations of girls and the value of girls pursuing STEM education for higher income generation within families, discourage early marriage and motherhood, discourage the payment of dowries, establish a functional body to address cases of sexual harassment, nurture the application of STEM education in fields that are perceived to be female friendly, facilitate females pursuit of home based work such as providing ICT related services, and to introduce innovative measures such as the feminisation of STEM subjects and their application to reduce stigma and societal stereotypes attached to STEM subjects.

STEM career opportunities and trainings

With regard to careers in STEM fields, it was recommenced to permit and arrange short term internships with employers to make it possible for teachers to learn more about STEM careers and to showcase STEM applications and experiential learning and to deliver guest lectures on campuses and to invite professionals from STEM areas to provide lectures. 

In addition, the report focused on job market and labour force related policies, regulations and trainings. In that regard, it recommended advocating the recruitment of females to the labour market, prioritising career counseling on the importance of STEM, ensuring greater focus on females and inclusion throughout secondary and higher education policy documents, developing family and female friendly benefits to retain employees, considering accommodating the needs of young people who are working by convening classes in the evenings or on weekends, reviewing labour market policies and laws in the medium and long term to make them more female friendly and with equal wages for similar occupations, introducing diverse trades in TVET institutions to complement STEM related subjects to ensure that females and men can acquire the skills needed to keep up with technological innovation and to make the transition to the labour market, and developing a policy in the long term to offer high TVET related stipends for female students.

Also recommending to provide targeted State sponsored scholarships and internships with stipends, it said that countries should undertake a more comprehensive gender review to reform grants, placements, salary scales, and promotions in the labour market.