Research in Kenya continues to show that despite increased gender equality efforts to get more young girls and young women to take up STEM courses, their numbers are still alarmingly low.
In high schools, girls continue to lean more towards arts-based subjects rather than science-based subjects.
In addition, their performance in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) tends to be lower than that of the boys.
Unsurprisingly, the picture is not much different in tertiary education. Fewer women enroll in STEM courses compared to men.
For example, in the 2019-2020 Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS) placement, out of the 57, 687 students admitted to universities to pursue STEM courses, 63% were male compared to 37% female.
Even more interesting is that there are gender disparities in enrolment even within specific STEM disciplines. In general medicine, the gender gap is narrower compared to other STEM fields like engineering.
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For example, in 2016-2017, 7,342 males were enrolled into medical degrees compared to 6,944 females in the 2016-2017 academic year. Female representation in engineering in 2016 stood at about 19.03%.
Young Girls Lack of Interest in STEM Education
According to the Women Engineers Chapter of the Institute of Engineers of Kenya (IEK), women constitute about 7% of professional engineers. This is not surprising given the low enrollment rates in higher education engineering courses.
Varied institutional, socio-cultural, and economic factors have been identified as causes of gender disparities across the STEM education continuum.
For example, teaching approaches that favor males over females at the basic and higher education levels diminish their interest in STEM.
The patriarchal cultural narrative that sciences are tough and are to be pursued by men and family preference to educate the boy child rather than the girl child, especially during economic hardships, further widen the gender divide.
With the ongoing implementation of the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC), Kenya’s Ministry of Education (MoE) aims to increase enrolment in STEM to 60% in senior schools.
This progressive goal not only has the potential to boost student numbers for both genders but also instills hope for a more balanced STEM education landscape.
According to the National Policy on Gender 2019, one of the policy actions to eliminate gender disparities in education is to “Adopt and strengthen measures to increase access to and retention of girls and boys in public education at all levels.”
So how can stakeholders, including those in STEM education, work with the MoE with this ambitious but achievable target of 60%? Creating institutional frameworks that explicitly target gender equality in STEM Education is one starting point.
Gender Equality Dilemma
Kenya’s 2105 Education and Training Sector Gender Policy advocates as much. However, we need to go a step further and evaluate the progress being made in the various indicators of the policy, especially the Education Management and Information Systems (EMIS).
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Inconsistent and delayed reporting of sex-disaggregated data stunts gender equality efforts. By the time we analyze these gender numbers, it means the damage is ongoing in the education system.
Therefore, it is critical to monitor this gender data regularly, addressing gaps as they are identified while being guided by the long-term goals that are driving the gender efforts in STEM Education.
Strong institutional governance structures are complementary to EMIS. Principals, teachers, and boards of management of schools play a critical role in promoting gender efforts. They are rallying points for the school’s key stakeholders including students, policy makers, families, the local communities.
The school does not have to wait for the community to come to them, instead it can reach out to the community and engage them on gender issues, especially those that are unique to that community.
According to the Gender Snapshot 2023 Report, the world is not on track to achieving gender equality by 2030. Shifting our gaze away from gender equality efforts in STEM will contribute to assertion. Strengthening our policy and institutional structures will help reverse this assertion.
More importantly, budgets have to be set aside to fund these efforts. Unfunded mandates, remain where they are: on shelves.
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