95% children recall male role models as inspiration in STEM fields, Avishkaar survey reveals

New Delhi, India, 30th June, 2021: The Indian education sector has been focusing on building momentum and preference towards STEM education for years now, given that technology is becoming all pervasive and is giving rise to newer job profiles that require a niche set of skill-sets which are increasingly dependent on next-generation technologies including AI, ML, coding and robotics to name a few. NEP 2020 guidelines have made it compulsory for 6th graders and above to learn coding as part of their coursework, thereby emphasising the need for hands-on learning. Several public-private partnerships have been relentlessly working towards increasing children’s participation in STEM education and their prospective careers. However, the bigger concern is when one takes into consideration the gender ratio as children progress towards pursuing a career in STEM and next-generation technology. As per the Global Gender Gap Report by World Economic Forum released in March 2021, only an alarming 29.2% technical roles are held by women in India; in fact, India has fallen 28 places in its ranking in 2021 when compared to 2020 – from Rank 112 to Rank 140.

Against this backdrop, Avishkaar, a category leader in next-generation technology education that focuses on robotics, AI, coding, and app development, conducted a survey titled – “India’s Future in Next-Generation Tech & STEM ” in June 2021 among 5000 parents and 5000 children across Indian cities including Delhi NCR, Chennai, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad and Cochin.

The survey brought to light two pertinent insights:

Firstly, it indicated that gender disparity in STEM fields in India is a glaring issue, owing to a lack of female role models in the industry –

95% children, including girls, recall male role models as inspiration in STEM fields, highlighting the urgent need to increase the exposure around women role models in STEM fields

When asked why there is an underrepresentation of girl children choosing to pursue a career in STEM and choose top three reasons:

50% of parents feel that societal pressures are one of the main reasons

42% feel that the parents’ influence plays a role

30% of parents even feel that the work environment in our country in these fields is more suitable for males versus females

Secondly, it highlighted the need for schools to implement hands-on learning and introduce children to the world of innovation and move away from rote learning techniques –

53% of the parent respondents use the hands-on learning approach to keep up their children’s interest levels in next-gen tech & STEM subjects. This includes toys and kits that help their children with application-based learning

Only 33% of parents feel that the current school curriculum is enough to help their child prepare for a future in next-gen tech and STEM to some extent. 90% of parents feel that this aspect of the curriculum should be made a priority in school

With the aim to gauge the perception of parents of young children, as well as the children themselves on their interest levels and career aspirations in STEM and next-generation technology fields, the survey is a deep-dive into the hidden concerns in the industry. Avishkaar is at the forefront of implementing such changes to ensure gender neutrality along with a more hands-on learning experience.

Commenting on the insights from the survey, Pooja Goyal, COO, and Co-founder, Avishkaar said, “It is heartening to see that parents are making conscious choices to ensure they nurture an innovative mindset among their children. I’m convinced that If our children have to thrive in the world of tomorrow, we need to create micro-environments in schools and homes that make it safe for children to experiment, to take risks, to fail, to think outside the box, to break things, and to build new things. We need to ensure that our children are not mere consumers but creators of technology.

“The process of building new things and creating new solutions is rife with failure and needs a lot of grit and resilience, both skills that we need to inculcate in our children. We need to help our children build this muscle from an early age. As such, it is important that we provide safe spaces for children, especially girls, to take risks and help them build tribes where they can brainstorm ideas and think outside the box. The next important step is gender neutrality, where not every girl has to pursue STEM careers, but children who are really good at it and have interest in the field should have the opportunity to do that”, she further added.

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Other key insights from the survey:

Gender disparity, a hidden concern?

when asked about how critical STEM was for their child, 81% of parents with male children feel that next-gen technology education and STEM is critical for their child, as compared to 68% of parents with female children

What grabs our attention even more is that many parents (54%) feel that those parents with male children are actually more likely to influence their child to pursue STEM than parents with female children

When children were asked to express their choice, 85% of male children would choose to pursue a career in STEM, as compared to only 57% of female children

STEM-related subjects continue to be hot favourites

56% of all parents are keen for their children to pursue IT/ Technology, more than any other subject. This is followed by Science (46%) and mathematics (43%). In contrast, only 23% of parents wish their child to pursue Arts-related subjects.

When looking at preference from a gender point of view, 60% of parents with male children would like their child to pursue subjects related to IT/ Technology, as compared to only 33% of parents with female children

On the other hand, 54% of children wish to pursue Science in future, while roughly 57% wish to pursue IT/ Technology

Why STEM?

In total, 76% of parents feel that STEM and next-gen tech education is critical for their child

When asked to highlight reasons, of the 76%, 75% feel that this will improve analytical skills within their children, and 69% feel that it is critical as they expect the world to become completely technology-oriented in the near future.

Not enough emphasis on STEM and next-generation technology education in school?

About 42% of parents with children in the age group of 13-17 years feel that the current school curriculum is not helping their child at all, which is a significantly higher ratio than that of parents with kids in younger age categories

On the other hand, when compared to what children feel, a massive 73% feel that their school is doing enough to encourage them to pursue a career in STEM and next-gen tech.

Parents’ influence on children’s choices – a boon or bane?

Roughly 45% of parents feel that they would be extremely influential on their child’s career choices

In fact, the majority of parents (62%) would be extremely willing to go the extra mile to make their child pursue a career in STEM.

However, only 35% of parents with female children feel this way.

For over 60% of the children, parents remain the largest influencers on career decisions.

With regard to their decision to pursue a career in STEM, 45% of children feel that their parents have been extremely influential in their decision

Girls (74%) seem to be more influenced by their parents when it comes to deciding a career in STEM, as compared to boys (58%).