{"id":229460,"date":"2023-03-02T19:51:18","date_gmt":"2023-03-02T14:21:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=229460"},"modified":"2023-03-02T19:51:18","modified_gmt":"2023-03-02T14:21:18","slug":"phasing-out-the-line-math-is-not-for-a-girl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/phasing-out-the-line-math-is-not-for-a-girl\/","title":{"rendered":"Phasing out the line, \u2018math is not for a girl\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Source<\/strong>&#8211; The post is based on the article <strong>\u201cPhasing out the line, \u2018math is not for a girl\u2019\u201d <\/strong>published in <strong>The Hindu <\/strong>on <strong>2nd March 2023<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Syllabus: <\/strong>GS2- Issues related to development and management of education<\/p>\n<p><strong>Relevance:<\/strong> Gender issues in education field<\/p>\n<p><strong>News-<\/strong> The representation of females in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics or other math intensive fields and careers remains is not desirable.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What is the status of girls&#8217; performance in maths?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Boys outperform girls in mathematics significantly, which has been persistent over time. But, there is a considerable variation.<\/p>\n<p>In the <strong>north Indian States <\/strong>of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Madhya Pradesh, boys outperform girls substantially. In <strong>south India,<\/strong> girls outperform boys in Mathematics.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What are the reasons behind less representation of girls in the field of maths?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>There is a tendency to attribute these disparities to <strong>differences in ability<\/strong>. It does not acknowledge the impact of <strong>social and cultural norms.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Girls are found to perform better in some southern States. It implies that inherent ability is not responsible for this difference.<\/p>\n<p>There is a widespread prevalence of the <strong>systematic devaluation of girls<\/strong> related to their mathematical aptitude in the classroom, at home, and in society. This is reflective of <strong>stereotypes <\/strong>related to girls.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>How public policy recognises the discrimination faced by girls in enrolling and continuing their school?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The<strong> National Education Policy 2020<\/strong>\u00a0 acknowledges the need to address several <strong>gender gaps <\/strong>in schooling. It stresses the need to implement <strong>gender\u00ad sensitive training<\/strong> for teachers. It calls for establishing a <strong>\u2018Gender \u00adInclusive Fund\u2019 for States<\/strong> to utilise in implementing community based interventions.<\/p>\n<p>Similarly, the <strong>National Curriculum Framework for Early Childhood Care<\/strong> also acknowledges these <strong>gender disparities<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>How underrepresentation of girls in the field of mathematics is neglected by policy documents?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>However, neither of these documents explicitly recognises the c<strong>auses and consequences of gender differences<\/strong> in mathematics learning at early ages.<\/p>\n<p>It is not that these gaps and mechanisms are unknown to the educational administration and policymakers. It was recognised in the position paper on the <strong>\u201cTeaching of Mathematics\u201d published by the NCERT in 2005.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The paper talks about poorer outcomes for girls in mathematics through the <strong>devaluation of girls in society<\/strong>. It also discusses classroom research, indicating how <strong>gendered perceptions and the behaviour<\/strong> of teachers might negatively impact the performance of girls in maths.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What is the way forward to remove discrimination against girls in the field of mathematics?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><strong>Targeted behavioural interventions<\/strong> can curb the gender stereotyping of \u201cmath is not for a girl\u201d at the household, societal, and school levels.<\/p>\n<p><strong>References to female mathematician<\/strong>s should be made in textbooks, female names, and characters in word problems.<\/p>\n<p>There is a need to provide <strong>exposure to female role models in STEM fields<\/strong> in the course curriculum.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source&#8211; The post is based on the article \u201cPhasing out the line, \u2018math is not for a girl\u2019\u201d published in The Hindu on 2nd March 2023. Syllabus: GS2- Issues related to development and management of education Relevance: Gender issues in education field News- The representation of females in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics or other&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/phasing-out-the-line-math-is-not-for-a-girl\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Phasing out the line, \u2018math is not for a girl\u2019<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[212,10498],"class_list":["post-229460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-the-hindu","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1700568877},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229460\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}