Myths Revolving Stem Education in India by Dhanusshya Raghu

On one side, the IT sector and MNCs have an upward trend in India. Digitalization and the pandemic made IT sector the grow exponentially. A great digital revolution during pandemic attracted the many people even from other sectors to join IT and Digitalization sectors. IT sector became new trend in the India until a huge layoff occurred. On the other hand, India is the top 1 country to produce highest number of Engineers due to its largest population. Statista’s survey says “Rate of Employability of engineers is just 57.44%”. About 40% of STEM graduates are women. How many STEM women graduates are employed? There is a great gap between STEM graduates and people working in STEM career.

Are you a STEM graduate?

Many Indian students are not aware of the word “STEM Education”, which is acronym of Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics. Most of us by now would have recalled some of degree courses like B.Sc., B. E, B. Tech, etc. But many of us are not aware that Medicine and agriculture are also STEM courses. Every graduate in STEM or STEM graduates would have faced myths about STEM education or career in STEM at least once. Most of STEM graduates (other than Computer science graduates) are actually working in the IT, administration, business management and technology sectors. There are more vacant jobs in STEM and other sectors are flooded with applications!! And this is the great irony and reality of STEM careers in India. What are those myths revolving STEM education and careers? Let’s unfold the myths, which are making downward trend in India.

STEM education is too Costly!!:

People pay more for STEM course like engineering and medicine. But actually, we pay more for MBA courses than any other STEM courses. We are falling in Engineering courses and Medicine courses impulsively. In reality, we pay more for Engineering and Medicine courses for the name “My child is an Engineer or a Doctor”. Parents feel proud to say their child is a doctor or Engineer, without thinking “What happens if half of population of students take Engineering and Medicine for about less jobs in India. By default, the next thought is working abroad. But In India or abroad, wherever you work only updated and skilled Engineers and Doctors who had passion for engineering and Medicine get employed well with Peace of Mind.

Less Job Vacancies!!:

STEM is a vast field which has a yen number of branches like Astrobiology, Horticulture, Nanotechnology, etc. STEM courses other than most commonly known courses have a lot of job vacancies all around the world. But they are partially filled. Because it has a greater number of vacancies than number of applicants. It may be due to least caring government, improper guidance of educational institutes, influential parents or ignorant graduates. Most of ignorant graduates fall in IT or government jobs. “What happens if many graduates fall in IT or irrelated Government jobs?”

STEM is not good for Girls:

The science itself is personified as a woman. Mathematics is queen of every science. But science is not good for girls. This is irony of reality. They are not good because it is not good or appropriate for a woman to be so engaged in her STEM career than taking care of her family. Medicine and Teaching careers are considered to be more appropriate and reserved careers for women. Her STEM educational is considered to be costlier. There is a misconception that STEM is filled with Men. But actually, 40% of people working in STEM are women. It is true that STEM careers need more engagement, more time. But “Will they spoil or disturb their work and parenting balance?”

STEM needs more engagement and hard to study:

The famous phrase “It is not a rocket science” in reality depresses STEM that “STEM is hard”. STEM is considered tough. Because business or other sectors are studying about human’s perspective, weakness and strategies of attracting people, whereas STEM is about studying nature’s creations, discoveries or methods of utilizing the nature’s amusements. But We need to extra engagement to understand our nature. So, many girls and parents think, “WHY we need to study so tough course like STEM to care of family and children?”

You can only become teacher studying Math:

Many people believe this myth. Mathematics is supremacy of everything in the world. You need math for Business, finance, Administration, etc. You need math for technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, etc. uses pure mathematics concept like linear algebra, etc. MNCs recruit math graduates for supply chains & logistics, actuaries, etc. Many engineering courses in India include Math graduation as an eligibility. Post graduate entrance exam for engineering courses (Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering) has separate paper called MA (Mathematics), which is eligible to apply for many postgraduate engineering courses like Aeronautical engineering, Industrial mathematics and scientific computing etc. Industries need more mathematicians than statisticians. Space organisations like NASA, ISRO recruit Math graduates and doctorates.

Less perks & more workload:

Many people think compared to IT and administration sectors, STEM jobs have less perk and more workload. This is because the so-called perks are highest pay, gracious job in society and great infrastructure. But STEM careers also have high pay, great and advanced infrastructure and they are more respectable jobs and great service to humanity!!

As an Indian citizen, we have responsibility and duty to contribute to scientific achievements to our country. As a human, we need to contribute innovations and more new discoveries for goodness of humanity. Don’t stop your STEM passion!! Let’s become immortal in the world and in humanity with your creativity, talent, and innovations.

References:

https://www.weforum.org/

https://nces.ed.gov/

By Dhanusshya Raghu