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US News & World Report
Around the World,
Girls Still Face Challenges in STEM Education
Education expert Joann DiGennaro talks about the challenges and
opportunities in improving learning in STEM fields.
By Sintia Radu, Staff Writer
Oct. 11, 2018
AS THE SEVENTH International Day of the Girl is observed on Thursday,
experts remind the public that providing a complete education for girls
and women worldwide remains a challenge. According to the United
Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, or UNESCO,
girls are still more likely than boys to never enter into a school
system, yet countries are committed to closing the gender gap by 2030
and also achieve universal completion of secondary education.
According to a February UNESCO report, "Historically, girls and young
women were more likely to be excluded from education."
"However globally, the male and female out-of-school rates for the
lower secondary and upper secondary school-age populations are now
nearly identical, while the gender gap among children of primary school
age dropped from more than five percentage points in 2000 to two
percentage points in 2016," the report adds.
Education still faces problems related to continuous funding, a
long-term strategy, and not benefiting from experts among the decision
makers, says Joann DiGennaro, co-founder and president of the Center
for Excellence in Education, a Virginia-based nonprofit organization
that supports outstanding high school and college students in STEM
fields. Solutions need to come soon, DiGennaro says, and might involve
retraining educators and creating new partnerships around the world to
share expertise and resources.
DiGennaro spoke with U.S. News about the challenges in educating for
girls, and which countries are providing useful positive examples. The
interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What are the major challenges in education today?
I think the major challenges have remained the same ones for many
years: How do you provide opportunities for students from
underrepresented populations and broaden that pipeline, particularly in
STEM, where many rural and urban teachers have difficulties in even
providing the laboratory equipment and laboratory experiments? I still
go into many schools where the track coach is teaching a science where
labs are so minimal. When you look at the competition in the world and
in the U.S., students are behind the eight ball because teachers have
not been prepared for what it takes.
Is there enough money for funding education programs to support girls?
Many times it's not just a money issue. It's a commitment issue for the
jurisdiction, the state and of course the federal government in not
being able to fund things on a continual basis. It's stop-and-go, so it
isn't cost effective in the planning and regarding the cost it takes to
start a program, and then the rug is taken out. But that is a problem
that we continue to fight. The glass is half full. There is tremendous
progress on women in STEM. When we had our first program in 1984, the
research science institute was 11 percent female, all Asian except one,
and all biology except one. Now we will go up to 40 percent to 46
percent where women are represented across the board in subject areas
-- except we'd still like more in computer science and physics, but of
course in biology and in several areas there are more females than
male. So the numbers are improving. I just wish they were a little
faster.
Gender inequity is, for instance, (still an issue) in India, in the
villages. One (challenge) is language of course -- it's difficult when
they do not speak English in the villages, but certainly they do in the
main cities. But looking at young girls who don't go to class when they
reach a certain age of middle school, (we found out one reason was)
they didn't have bathrooms for the kids. Simple little nuances,
common-sense issues. The girls were having their periods each month and
because they didn't have proper (facilities), they were ashamed and
stopped coming to school. In Saudi Arabia the girls, just like in the
U.S. most of the time, will outperform gradewise the boys, but in
answering questions, they'll defer (to the boys). Parents and peers
still believe that STEM is for boys. There are inroads (for girls)
throughout the world, but they are not at the degree we would like them.
What happens in the U.S.?
Girls in universities will start out with STEM, but many times we see
at the second year they will switch. It's a complex issue. We applaud
that there are more opportunities, but the issues of bench (basic)
science need to be looked at carefully. Promotions are coming at a
rapid rate for women with the proper credentials for tenureship, but we
have only the second woman in a decade with a tenure track at Harvard
in math and only the fifth woman to receive a Nobel in chemistry. Women
(are looking for) the fields that pay the most and where they can
combine having children, family and doing the bench science.
The Women in the World's Parliaments
I am always amazed at the Balkans. Many of those countries were (using
the) Russian model and looking at Romania and Bulgaria, they are a
little monolithic but have a history of promoting women in science
going back to the olympiads for high school students that have been
around since the '50s. (They are) promoting women, nurturing women and
have a different model. I look at Israel in promoting women in science
through its short history and the programs done in engineering with
women. Sometimes your smaller nations see the necessity much more
quickly than your larger nations.
One hot topic now is artificial intelligence and how AI will shape the
future. Are educators ready to teach this?
Everybody is hot on AI, but probably 99 percent of them don't know what
it is. (We need) teacher training, but even before that (we need) the
school systems to look at what they are saying about AI – how it is a
reality in their school system. There has to be a commitment from the
decision-makers and most decision-makers are bureaucrats, many of them
with a legal background, while in China in the Standing Committee, 8
out of 9 are engineers.
What can smaller nations do to teach AI?
With online resources and a commitment for alliances you have to think
out of the box to get help. And China is always waiting to help a
nation in AI, as long as they get something in return. (If) there's
interest and commitment, but not the resources and not the know-how,
it's alliances that are gonna solve the difficulty. (Countries like)
Israel, Japan, and Taiwan are interested (in AI). Saudi Arabia (is
interested) in this, (and so is) Rwanda, who wants to be the technology
capital of Africa.
In the U.S. we should be leading this and leading it for our own
students. I have been in China every eight to 10 weeks for the last
four years consulting and I can tell you that national commitment to AI
and cyber is loud and clear. I worry about our commitments to (create)
viable opportunities in education starting early. The discussion has to
take place now.
Read this and other articles at US News & World Report
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