For the past three days, I have been doing KVPY interviews. This is a flagship program of DST that is coordinated by IISc. Students have to give an aptitude test and if they qualify, they are called in for interviews. The selected candidates are provided scholarships for pursuing research. The program was mooted to encourage children to study basic science as opposed to engineering/medicine. I do not know the statistics as to how many children do end up in research but we have had couple of KVPY scholars in our M.Sc program. Brilliant girls who ended up doing Ph.D.
However, this post is not about how successful the KVPY program is. Rather I am going to talk about my observations over the past three days. There were groups and each group interviewed approximately 90 students over the three days.
1. Most were boys. Of 90 students, we had only 6 girls in my group. Assuming that the exam is not gender biased, and given the fact that the number of girls in most schools is equal to the number of boys (I talking about co-ed schools) one wonders about the lack of girls in this program. I have to add here that I have been doing these interviews off and on for many years and over the years I have observed that the number of girls attending the interviews remains less than 10%. I do not know if IISc has done any statistics to find out if the number of applications itself is low or is it the girls do not qualify. If it is the later, then we have to worry about the exam pattern because then it would mean that the exam is gender biased. If the number of application itself is low, then we do need to do something to encourage the girls to compete in these exams.
2. If the number of girls was less than 10%, then the religious minorities fared even worse. Again I do not know the reason but I found it worrisome.
3. Biology and math are mutually exclusive. Which is a pity because math is needed in biology and we get students at Ph.D. level who struggle with simple math.
4. Physical education is a popular choice of subject. So students take Physics, Math, Chemistry, and Physical Education. English is of course compulsory. I was curious about Physical education because none of the kids looked fit but couple of them assured them that they do play games.
5. Finally, there is a big divide between the big public schools and the rest. Many of the kids were from these big public schools, confident, and fluent in English. Most of them are taking tuition for JEE. Government schools were woefully underrepresented. We got couple of kids from Kendriya Vidyalaya. The children from other public schools providing English medium education were hesitant, lacked confidence and preferred Hindi as the medium of communication. Except one girl who said that she would prefer to talk in English and not in Hindi even though it was a struggle for her.
However, this post is not about how successful the KVPY program is. Rather I am going to talk about my observations over the past three days. There were groups and each group interviewed approximately 90 students over the three days.
1. Most were boys. Of 90 students, we had only 6 girls in my group. Assuming that the exam is not gender biased, and given the fact that the number of girls in most schools is equal to the number of boys (I talking about co-ed schools) one wonders about the lack of girls in this program. I have to add here that I have been doing these interviews off and on for many years and over the years I have observed that the number of girls attending the interviews remains less than 10%. I do not know if IISc has done any statistics to find out if the number of applications itself is low or is it the girls do not qualify. If it is the later, then we have to worry about the exam pattern because then it would mean that the exam is gender biased. If the number of application itself is low, then we do need to do something to encourage the girls to compete in these exams.
2. If the number of girls was less than 10%, then the religious minorities fared even worse. Again I do not know the reason but I found it worrisome.
3. Biology and math are mutually exclusive. Which is a pity because math is needed in biology and we get students at Ph.D. level who struggle with simple math.
4. Physical education is a popular choice of subject. So students take Physics, Math, Chemistry, and Physical Education. English is of course compulsory. I was curious about Physical education because none of the kids looked fit but couple of them assured them that they do play games.
5. Finally, there is a big divide between the big public schools and the rest. Many of the kids were from these big public schools, confident, and fluent in English. Most of them are taking tuition for JEE. Government schools were woefully underrepresented. We got couple of kids from Kendriya Vidyalaya. The children from other public schools providing English medium education were hesitant, lacked confidence and preferred Hindi as the medium of communication. Except one girl who said that she would prefer to talk in English and not in Hindi even though it was a struggle for her.
Considering that I could answer less than 10% of the questions in the Nov 2017 KVPY question paper (SA level, mind you), I suppose I am hardly qualified to pass comment on KVPY.
ReplyDeleteThus said, one is hard pressed to see how there can be a gender bias in a science and mathematics exam. I couldn't see any "biased" questions.
Unless one wishes to theorise that girls are inherently not good at math and science - a theory that is best left unstated!
Seems to me that the reason for the low number of girls attempting KVPY exams is that fewer girls opt for a career in science than boys.
Frankly, I am surprised that there are applicants for KVPY at all. Last year, 12 lakh applicants took IIT-JEE while hardly 1 lakh appeared for KVPY (per Wikipedia).
A career in science does not pay, at least in India.
Even in the corporate sector (from which I recently let myself out), a science PhD earns less than a mid-level IT engineer. Not sure how much you were paid at Aurigene, but I am willing to bet that it would be much less than what a project manager at Infosys would earn, with just a BTech degree.
I suppose urban girls have realised this, and have opted for professional courses instead, especially InfoTech.
That is why, at my alma, ICT Mumbai (formerly UDCT), 50% of the student body comprises women. In some departments, like Food Tech and Pharma, I'm told girls outnumber the boys.
Similarly, it would be interesting to look into the gender ratio at the IIT's and to see how many girls appear for IIT-JEE as compared to KVPY.
This being the case with the "majority" community, then it is not surprising that a negligible number of girls from the "minorities" opt for a career in Science. It might be noted that in some "minority" sects, girls are prevented from higher education of any kind, leave alone pursuing a PhD.
Also might point out that the IT sector does a pretty good job of wooing schoolkids and drawing them away from pure science.
As it is, scientific institutes in India are not exactly world-class. You would know this better than I. Mediocrity flourishes in our country's citadels of Science, not least due to caste being preferred over scientific competency. Added to this, is the low remuneration, and the fact that pursuing a PhD is a gruelling, tedious, time-consuming and torturous experience, it is hardly surprising that many Indian girls stay away from Science.
Which is a real pity, since most of the brilliant Indian scientists I've come across in my career were women.
Cheers ... SK Srinivas, Bangalore.