The Challenge of Gender Gap in Science and Technology Among Undergraduate Students: The Case of University of Mkar, Mkar

Abstract

One of the challenges of university education in Nigeria is the issue of gender imbalance in the choice of pure science and technology courses. While private universities have contributed immensely in narrowing the gap between male and female students in over all admission, much is yet to be achieved in the area of pure sciences. A case of the University of Mkar shows that the gender gap in core science and computer courses is too wide to be imagined. It was discovered that there is no single female students in Chemical and Physical Sciences. The study equally reveals that only 8.7% of female students enrolled for computer science and 46.7% for Microbiology as against 86.4% in Mass communication and 60.9% in Sociology. Several reasons have been advanced for this anomaly which includes parental influence, lack of models and child upbringing. In order to address this challenge, some recommendations were made. They include sensitization of parents by management of private universities; encouragement of female students through tuition scholarship and the introduction of sexuality education for the purpose of enhancing students self-esteem. This paper is optimistic that the challenge of gender imbalance in science and technology will soon become history if these recommendations are given due consideration.

Keywords: Challenge; gender gap; science & technology and undergraduate students.