Not just in US, fewer schools teach science in India

The authorities may want more scientists but the opportunity for studying science at school level seems to be dismally limited. Less than a third of schools offer the subject at the higher-secondary (Classes XI and XII) level across the country. Only 30.07% high schools in India offer the science stream and only in 11 states/union territories-including Delhi-more than 50% schools teach science. Data collected through the Secondary Education Management Information System (SEMIS) and collated in the SEMIS Flash Statistics: 2012-13, also shows that boys outnumber girls in science classes in most states.

“Most of higher-secondary education is in private hands,” observes Professor R. Govinda, Vice-Chancellor of National University of Educational Planning and Management. “To offer science, you need laboratories, equipment and other facilities-it’s very resource-intensive. Many private schools choose to teach just arts and commerce due to this,” he says. In Delhi, most higher-secondary schools are under the Directorate of Education (52.24%) and 33.73% are private, unaided institutions. But nationally, the maximum number of high schools-41.04%-is private-unaided.

Govinda feels the shortage of teachers is also a factor. “For high school, you need a master’s degree and in some places, even a B.Ed,” he explains, “You may not get people with the right qualifications in some rural or remote areas. Also, you’ll need teachers who’ve specialized. We don’t have enough teachers.”

Only 51.71% Delhi high schools offer science whereas 86.56% offer arts and 78.39% commerce. The only state/UT where all high schools have science is Lakshadweep. In Tamil Nadu 86.51% and in Puducherry 82.58% schools have it.

The gender imbalance in science classes in north India is startling. In Delhi, where many girls schools don’t offer science-60,837 boys study them as opposed to 33,768 girls; in UP it’s 495,574 boys and 164,882 girls. In Gujarat, 95,836 boys study high school science as opposed to 47,520 girls. But, on a positive note, the gap is not so wide is several states. In Andhra Pradesh, the number of girls (75,434) is practically equal to the number of boys (75,471). And in states/UTs like Lakshadweep, Meghalaya, Puducherry, Sikkim and Tamil Nadu (south and northeast), girls outnumber boys in science classes.

Source: The Times of India, January 2, 2014

Newer IIMs Stay Low on Gender Balance

Most of the newer Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) have a long distance to cover before they can catch up with their older counterparts on gender diversity. The percentage of women in the 2013-15 batch at four IIMs in Tiruchirapalli, Ranchi, Shillong and Udaipur, has dropped – in some cases sharply. Only three of the seven new IIMs – Rohtak, Raipur and Kashipur – have managed to surpass last year’s numbers. The six older IIMs have all outdone last year’s performance (ET, June 17).

At IIM-Shillong, which is in its sixth year, the percentage of women has fallen to 22% this year from nearly 30% of the batch last time. IIM-Ranchi has seen the numbers drop to 8.75% this year from 18% in the 2012-14 batch and IIM-Udaipur, to 13.6% in the 2013-15 batch from 28% last time. The sharpest fall has been in the case of IIM-Trichy, where, at 52.9%, more than half the class of 2012-14 comprised women. This year, it’s a mere 15.7%.

With the exception of IIM-Shillong and IIM-Ranchi, all the new IIMs awarded extra points to women in the interest of gender diversity. It worked in some cases, like that of IIM-Raipur or IIM-Rohtak, where the institute has seen the percentage of women jump nearly five-fold to 47.6% from 9.6%.

“There is a feeling in the government as well as corporates that increased representation of women is the need of the hour. That’s true of educational institutes as well,” says IIM-Rohtak Director P. Rameshan. The institute gave women students extra points for gender diversity at the time of shortlisting.

IIM-Trichy, on its part, gave one percentage point extra to women candidates, marginally lower than what was given last year. But Godwin Tennyson, Chairperson, Placement and External Relations, IIM-Trichy says that cannot be the only reason for the higher proportion of women last year.

“The percentage of women admitted in an IIM has many drivers starting from the percentage of women who cleared CAT and qualified for the admission selection process. A candidate gets admitted based on about seven dimensions: written analysis test, personal interview, work experience, performance at undergraduate level, masters degree or professional qualification, gender and CAT score,” says Tennyson. “So, the chance of someone getting admitted to an IIM is a complex function with many moving parts. We cannot filter out a single dimension that really contributed to the admission of a student,” he adds.

IIM-Shillong, on its part, says it has always focused on meritocracy and diversity of the participants, and not on gender diversity for their PGDM course. Diversity is not about one programme alone, says MJ Xavier, Director of IIM-Ranchi. So while the institute’s PGDM programme has seen a fall in the number of women, their PGDHRM programme has a much higher proportion of women – nearly 37%, or 16 out of 43 students.

“Between the various programmes including FPM, we have around 20% women on campus. Without giving marks for gender diversity, we have still managed to attract a lot of women,” says Xavier. “However, since most people are giving extra marks for women, I may be forced to do that from next year,” he added.

Added the IIM-Ranchi Director: “We are trying to achieve diversity across many dimensions such as educational background, work experience, masters degree and gender. Overall, all these dimensions contribute to the learning experience in the class. At the same time, we also try to ensure that quality of the batch is not compromised for diversity.”

With corporates trying to shore up their gender diversity numbers and IIMs serving as one of the most critical pipelines of managerial talent, there’s a buzz across campuses about getting more women on board. Already, there have been changes made in the pattern of CAT: 50% weightage to language skills as well as a written test during the admission process, both designed to get more women.

The number of women applicants in CAT has also seen an increase to 60,876 in 2012, which represents 28.4% of total applicants compared with 27.3% in CAT 2011.

Debashis Chatterjee, Director of IIM-Kozhikode, which at 54.29%, has the highest number of women across all IIMs, says the institute was responding to market demands for diversity. For the past 40 to 50 years, 8% to 10% was the average composition of women in IIM classes, he says, adding: “That was lopsided, the diversity skewed in terms of gender. Now it’s not only about correcting the balance, but also about creating the necessary aspirations among women.”

Global B-schools, he says, now decide diversity profiles before they admit students. “Once diversity is made a consideration, more women apply. IIMs don’t have to give points to women. They just have to change their lens,” says Chatterjee.

Source: The Economic Times, July 5, 2013

IIT-JEE 2012: Number of girls cracking exam doubles in a year, gender imbalance remains intact

Each year boys max out seats at the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). But the count of girls who secured JEE (Joint Entrance Exam) ranks has doubled to 2,886 since the last edition of the exam. Yet, the tech schools will on another front continue to be an unequal world: students from the IIT-Bombay zone (home to Kota) dominate the list of selected candidates. But the southern zone has bagged the credit for having eight of the top 20 rankers, most from Andhra Pradesh.

B-town boys have bagged the top ranks: Faridabad’s Arpit Agrawal topped the JEE with a score of 385 (out of 401); he is followed by Chandigarh’s Bijoy Singh Kochar and Bhilai’s Nishanth Koushik. Priya Inala — all-India rank (AIR) 21 — from AP is the girls’ topper. Science is this Asian Physics Olympiad gold medallist’s first love. She is joined by two other girls in the top 100. This year, 150,000 girls took the JEE free of cost. Clearly, the plan to not charge them worked: the headcount of successful girls is exactly double of last year’s 1,443.

Three boys tied at the score of 369: Jaipur’s Nishit Agrawal (AIR 6; Bombay zone topper), Anant Gupta (AIR 7; Roorkee zone) and Kandivli’s Manik Dhar (AIR 8; Maharashtra topper). Competition was compounded by the fact that JEE 2012 was tougher than its predecessor. “The cut-off has dropped to 172. Last time, it was 229. The difficulty level has indeed gone up,” said Avinash Mahajan, IIT-Bombay’s JEE chairman.

An analysis of the top 100 students shows that 31 hail from the western zone and 38 from the Madras zone. The Bombay zone also has the highest number of candidates in the top 1,000–294. Of all the seven zones (prepared on the basis of the old IITs), the western region saw the largest pool of students who qualified— 4,239. Of these, 491 are girls. As many as 73,351 candidates took the test from this zone.

The Madras zone, from where 71,981 candidates sat for the JEE, will send 3,666 candidates to the 15 tech schools. Closer home, only 599 of the 4,696 students who sat for JEE from Mumbai qualified; of the 22,331 who appeared for the exam from Maharashtra, 1,796 made it.

Out of 33,057 candidates from Jaipur, many of whom prepared from coaching centres in Kota, 2,677 made the cut. A total of 470,000 candidates appeared for JEE. Of them, 17,462 have been short-listed for the counselling process for admission to the IITs. But 24,112 have secured ranks and can join other colleges that accept JEE scores.

JEE chairman G D Reddy said that across India, the report card of reserved category students had improved. “There will not be any preparatory programme for SC/ST students this year. Only 124 students from the physically challenged category have been short-listed for the preparatory programme.”

Of the 4,805 OBC candidates who qualified, 1,625 made it to the common merit list. Of the 3,464 SC and 654 ST students who qualified, about 300 made it without the handicap of score relaxation. Nishanth Rumandla (AIR 4) is the OBC topper; Zubin Arya (AIR 94) came first on the SC merit list; and Vikas Meena (AIR 642) topped the ST merit list.

In all, the 15 IITs, IT-BHU and ISM, Dhanbad, have 9,647 seats, apportioned as: 4,722 for the general category, 2,101 for OBCs, 434 for minority OBCs, 1,403 for SCs, 708 for STs and 279 for physically challenged students.

Source: The Times of India, May 19, 2012