Delhi govt launches mentoring programme for girls in its schools

New Delhi: The Delhi government on Saturday launched a mentoring programme for girls studying in its schools in order to encourage them to participate in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and support them to clear entrance exams for higher education related to these subjects

New Delhi: The Delhi government on Saturday launched a mentoring programme for girls studying in its schools in order to encourage them to participate in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and support them to clear entrance exams for higher education related to these subjects.

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In a statement released on Saturday, the Delhi government said under the ‘Education Mentoring Programme’ as many as 200 students from state-run Indira Gandhi Delhi Technical University of Women will mentor 1,000 girls enrolled in government schools. The mentor students will be from courses like BTech, MTech, PhD and MBA. Later the programme will cover 10,000 to 15,000 school girls.

Addressing the gathering at the launch of the programme, education minister Manish Sisodia said, “Our world is becoming a knowledge economy, with dedicated research and innovation quickly becoming key to progress. Although our nation is seeing some major innovations in every field of work, these innovations are mostly led by men. The participation of women is abysmal when it comes to innovation, especially in the field of STEM. According to a study I recently came across, women form only 33% of the total workforce in research and innovation in STEM in South Asia.”

“With the Education Mentoring Programme, Delhi Government wants to empower students of Delhi in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. We want our students, especially our girls, to receive the right guidance, which will help them build sustainable innovations. It is our vision that our girls equally dominate the STEM sector,” he added.

Stressing upon lower enrolment of girls in Science in higher education, Sisodia asked the mentor students to fill in the gap.

“If I have to speak about the enrolment rate of pre-primary and primary schools, approximately 21 lakh children are enrolled every year. However, only 10,000 girls take up STEM studies in higher education. Our students and teachers are continuously endeavoring to work hard in this field but we need to fill in this gap. Therefore, your participation and mentoring will play a crucial role,” he said.

Delhi government schools principals welcomed the initiative.

AK Jha, principal of Sarvodaya Co-ed Vidyalaya in Rohini, said, “The initiative will help our female students to know about the career opportunities available for them and the mentors will guide them to prepare for different entrance exams. Many of our students are from economically weaker families and can’t afford expensive coaching. All the mentor students are girls and it will help them connect with our students well.”