Girls do not yet perform as well as their male counterparts in maths and science, according to a situation assessment and analysis carried out by Unicef in the Eastern Cape, Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal.
The report notes that although the gap is slowly closing between boy and girl learners who are taking these subjects, boys still outperform girls. For instance, in the Senior Certificate Examinations (SCE) ‘70% of boys passed in 2002 compared with 67% of girls”.
With regard to maths, the report indicates that ‘even though girls’ access to mathematics has improved since 1996, data from the 2002 SCE revealed that girls still perform at a lower level than boys, despite greater enrolment in Grade 12 mathematics”. And this, according to the report, is due to a relative decrease of girls doing maths on the higher grade, which ‘suggests that girls are possibly being discouraged from enrolling in higher-grade mathematics”.
Conversely, in physical science ‘the number of girls enrolled and passing has increased more rapidly compared with boys. [But] the gap in pass rate is wider than in mathematics; the pass rate among boys was 31% and among girls, 23%.”
It is against the historic gap between girls’ and boys’ accomplishments in these subjects that a national strategy for mathematics and science has been operating. Launched in 2001, the project aims to ‘strengthen the teaching of these learning areas; to raise the level of participation and performance of historically disadvantaged learners in Grade 12 maths and
science, as well as capacitating educators involved in the teaching of the subjects”.
A similar project has been launched in Gauteng. Called Intombi (meaning ‘girl” in Zulu), the project has enrolled about 300 girl learners. According to coordinator Fundi Dlamini, the project aims to conceptualise and explore innovative teaching methods for these learning areas.
She attributes the apparent poor performance and lack of interest by girl learners in maths and science to the fact that the subjects ‘have always been taught by men who naturally tend to be biased and more accessible to boys”. This invariably has the effect of making girl learners feel left out.
To engender interest among girl learners, Dlamini says Intombi invites girls and women who have done well in these subjects to serve as role models. They visit schools in the province and give motivational talks, mostly about their challenges and how they overcame them, as well as career options in their chosen fields.
Dlamini says that this year the project intends to introduce mentorships. With the mentorship programme, learners will visit different plants or sites where they will be exposed to real work situations for a duration of five days.
With efforts like these, a ‘woman’s place” will no longer be in the kitchen, as it were, but in the lab.