Another study reveals gender bias

CHENNAI: Bias based on gender is still prevalent among students in top schools across five metros, according to a national study. It also says that performance of Indian students’ in math, science and social studies is well below par compared to the international average.Releasing the findings of the Quality Education Study conducted by Wipro and Educational Initiatives, vice-president of Educational Initiatives Vyjayanthi Sankar said here on Saturday that the year-long study involved 23,000 students, 790 teachers and 54 principals, in 89 schools across five metros, including 21 schools in Chennai. The study found that there is deep-rooted bias against the girl child, even in students from families which probably belong to the educated and higher socio-economic strata of society. According to the study, 40-43 per cent students in classes IV, V, VI and VIII felt that education for girls was not as important as responsibility towards the family. If a choice had to be made between a boy and a girl in providing education, boys were preferred over girls. Some of them also said that educating girls was a waste of time.The study also said that boys perform better than girls in math and science at class VIII level. Most students however performed lower than average on questions used from studies such as ‘Trends in International Maths and Science Study’ (TIMSS) and Progress in Reading Literacy Study at Class IV level.Vyjayanthi said there was improvement in Class VIII level but even there it was more related to answering procedural questions that do not involve deeper understanding or application of concepts.“The study found out that students in ‘top’ schools are not learning with understanding and harbour a number of misconceptions that do not get corrected as students move up to higher classes,” said Vyjayanthi, adding that “Rote learning is often deceptive and passes off as apparent learning but does not let students develop the higher skills such as critical thinking, creativity and application.” The findings also reveal that schools from Council for Indian School Certificate Examinations (ISCE) and Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) performed among the top two and the difference with other boards were statistically significant.