In 2025 Girls Are Being Pulled Out of Class to Sell Maize 😱

Yes, you read that right. In 2025 Girls Are Being Pulled Out of Class to Sell Maize 😱The sad part is; teachers have tried all means possible to stop this but nothing has worked.I run a Social Enterprise - SheSOLVES Africa, a STEM education initiative nurturing the next generation of women who will apply STEM to solve current and future challenges on the continent.As a realist, back in 2024, I took account of all the programs and projects we had executed since 2018 and needed to know if we were doing anything right at all or just close the organisation entirely. I don’t believe in just having numerous outreach programs without measurable outcomes. I had a nudge to give things one more try and decided to focus our intervention efforts towards validating the current gender gap in STEM in Nigeria - does it exist indeed? How serious of an issue is it?<img alt="Cross-section of participants at the STEMFutures Design Jam" src="/media/inline_insight_image/IMG_0371.jpeg"/> Here in Lagos where I live and work, there are just about as many girls as boys in science classes across schools I have had the chance to work with as an EdTech Professional - both public and private. We commenced a research consultation in Lagos with girls in STEM from both private and public secondary schools and undergraduate women in STEM. Outcomes of a co-creation session with the participants revealed that in spite of the increased number of girls who were in STEM, they still had a confidence gap, stemming from a mindset gap and creating a competence gap. What an interconnected and complex web.In July 2024, we engaged a rural farming community we had had a STEM career activation with. We had a second research consultation - some sort of comparative analysis with the consultation in Lagos. It was here all hell was let looooose. Here are what we found out from our design jam with girls, boys, teachers and parents; 📌 Teachers shared that the only way to keep girls in school was to allow their parents access to them anytime. 📌 Parents emphasised that if they had access to crop preservation technologies, they would reduce post-harvest losses and not need their daughters to support with selling as much farm produce as possible to reduce wastage. 📌 Girls themselves want their parents to have cooling systems for their produce so they can stay in school. What was more shocking; None of the students (both female and male) was able to identify any global or national role model/leader in STEM. Indeed the underrepresentation of adolescent girls and young women in STEM education and careers in Nigeria and across Africa is still real, not only real, it is systemic, and bears an impact on Nigeria and Africa's innovation capacity at large. A 2021 report by the World Bank reveals that only 30% of science professionals in Sub-Saharan Africa are women. In Nigeria, 22% of STEM graduates are women. Where exactly do we start from addressing these systemic issues? What should be our Northstar? In my next post, I will share the approach SheSOLVES Africa employs to close the gender gap in STEM in Nigeria and across Africa.

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