UNESCO - United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

05/04/2022 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 05/04/2022 15:27

Teachers Oriented in Administering STEM Education to learners in Uganda

UNESCO supported a one-week training workshop organized by the Uganda National Commission for UNESCO (UNATCOM) to promote Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education among teachers in Uganda. During the workshop, science teachers were called to lead by example so as attract and inspire more learners especially girls and women to brace the STEM subjects. These remarks were made by Ms. Rosie Agoi the Secretary-General of UNATCOM while speaking to STEM teachers during a benchmarking visit organized for trainers at Our Lady of Good Counsel Gayaza.

The workshop ran from 14 to 18 March 2022 and attracted over 60 STEM teachers drawn from different parts Uganda. The overall goal of the initiative was to strengthen the capacity of the education system in the country to provide gender-responsive STEM education and ultimately increase girls' participation in STEM education. This comes at the back drop that many African countries including Uganda have over the years recorded low participation and academic performance of girls in STEM studies. Many cross-national learning assessments find that, gender differences in science and mathematics achievement begin at the end of primary education, deepening in secondary education and are accompanied by fewer women than men pursuing these STEM fields in higher education. Recent statistical data shows that in Uganda, only 53% of girls aged 6-12 are reported to complete the required seven years of primary education, and merely 22.5% of the female Ugandan population as a whole enroll in secondary education.