Enhancing Gender Equity in STEM Education: A Comparative Study of the Impact of School Ownership on Female Enrollment

Introduction

The adoption of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by the United Nations (UN) in September 2015 placed the world to ensure gender equity in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education (Koehler, 2016; Leal Filho et al., 2022; Zorzano, 2020). Gender is commonly representing female or male, however, in this study, added to that describes the socio-cultural characters of masculinity and femininity according to practices by individual based on their culture, while sex describes the biological characteristics of women and men (Unicef & others, 2020). In this regard, gender may change with time and place depending on roles taken by women and men, whereas sex never change. Before 2016, sub-Saharan Africa had a substantial number of secondary schools whose quality of education was questionable according to United Nations, this being one of the reasons to launch the fourth Sustainable Development Goal (SDG4) (Unterhalter, 2019).

Some regions of the world are closing gender equity gaps in STEM education like USA, and Europe (Kamberidou & Pascall, 2019), but gender inequity in STEM education is substantial in sub-Saharan Africa, the Arab states, and south and west Asia (Ismail, 2018; Loyalka et al., 2021). Emphasis to enhance STEM education in literature has centered resolution on pedagogical skills, low teacher student ratio, incompetent teachers, and education facility availability (Allen et al., 2016; Huang et al., 2022; Teo & Ke, 2014). Moreover, girls' poor participation in STEM subjects in secondary schools especially in sub-Saharan Africa are more associated with cultural practices and other reasons associated with masculinity (Adams & Baddianaah, 2023; Lewin, 2009).

Education policy makers in Tanzania engaged private sectors to run private schools along with public schools (Komba, 2017). This lead to contribution in containing not only enrolment issues in STEM education but also great improvement of gender equity (Weaver, 2011). Evaluation of private schools’ contribution is indispensable, this fact holds following the reality that graduates from private education sectors become part of the nation decent and future human resource capital (Achoui, 2009; Budhwar & Sparrow, 2002; Sebola, 2023). Table 1 presents the performance of students from 32 private schools in Mbeya city. Majority of students in privates’ schools passed in first and second division. Unlike in private schools, candidates in public schools' majority were in the fourth division Table 2.

In Tanzania, efforts to solve gender issues in STEM education is historical (Samoff, 1987). Several bodies like United States Agency for International Development (USAID) have supported to ease the tension of gender inequity in STEM education (Stromquist, 2006; Swainson, 2000).

This report unleashes aspects of private schools’ contributions in gender equity in STEM education following credible educational policies by the Tanzanian government and promotes improvement in education investment for harmonization of public and private schools. This study illustrated by concrete examples the contribution of private schools in STEM education. Contribution is not only an increase in number of students specializing in STEM subjects but also significant improvement in diminishing of gender equity gap of STEM education.

Figure 1 depicts performance in STEM subjects of biology, chemistry, physics and basic mathematics of 2232 candidates from 32 private secondary schools in Mbeya city. Comparable performance of 5704 candidates from 26 public schools Figure 1 indicated deprived performance in STEM subjects. In parallel to more girls’ enrolment over boys, more girls passed every STEM subject in private schools except for physics. However, regardless of more girl’s enrolment in public schools, boys outperformed girls in every STEM subject except for biology.

Figure 1. CSEE 2022 results of STEM subjects in private schools.

Methods

This study employed a quantitative comparative research design to examine the impact of school ownership on female enrolment and performance in STEM subjects in Mbeya City, Tanzania. The study utilized secondary data obtained from the 2022 Certificate of Secondary Education Examination (CSEE) results available on the National Examinations Council of Tanzania (NECTA) website. The data comprised examination results of Form Four students from 58 secondary schools (32 private and 26 public), including a total of 7936 candidates, of which 2232 were from private schools.

Data analysis focused on the observed performance outcomes in STEM subjects and female enrollment patterns. Two statistical methods were employed: chi-square tests to assess associations between school ownership and gendered performance, and graphical analysis to visualize enrollment and performance trends. This study did not examine classroom instruction, teaching strategies, or other qualitative factors influencing results; rather, it concentrated solely on exam performance as recorded by NECTA. The scope is therefore limited to determining whether school ownership influences gender equity and female participation in STEM education.

Data collection

The Author conducted data collection by reading and recording from the report by NECTA of CSEE for the year 2022, particularly, selecting all Mbeya city secondary schools participated in the form four national examinations of year 2022. In addition to division-wise performance as organized by NECTA, the author went further by listing overall performance of every STEM subject and eventually bar charts plotted as in Figure 1 and Figure 2.

Figure 2. CSEE 2022 results of STEM subjects of public school in Mbeya city.

Results

The degree of freedom for each group is three with α =0.05 of which the collected critical value, $p=7.81$ . Computed chi-squares were ${\chi }_{\mathit{pr}}^2=4.28$ for private schools ${\chi }_{\mathit{pr}}^2=318.33$ for public schools. In addition to chi-square testing of the data, student performance in STEM subjects were listed in tabular ( Table 3, Table 4) form along with plotting the bar charts ( Figure 1, Figure 2).

Discussion

Based on the data analysis, we calculated critical value, p = 7.81 and a test statistic computed ${\chi }_{\mathit{pr}}^2=4.28$ for all students’ performance in STEM subjects for private schools and ${\chi }_{\mathit{pr}}^2=318.33$ for public schools. It is clear that ${\chi }_{\mathit{pr}}^2=4.28<7.81=p$ , and ${\chi }_{\mathit{pr}}^2=318.33>p$ . Recall the null and alternative hypothesis:

Null ( $H_0$ ) and Alternative Hypotheses ( $H_1$ ):

$H_0$ : For the students in Mbeya city from private/public secondary schools, gender has no influence to pass in STEM subjects.

$H_1$ : For the students in Mbeya city from private/public secondary schools, gender has influence to pass in STEM subjects.

In this regard, we do accept the null hypothesis for private schools and reject the null hypothesis for public schools. Therefore, private schools in Mbeya city resolved the gender equity gap in performance of STEM subjects. On the other hand, gender equity gaps are unresolved between girls and boys in STEM subjects’ performance for public schools. That implies that the gender equity gap shall extend to the future STEM careers of graduates from public schools, and therefore, spread to the whole nation and worldwide at large.

We suppose education policy had had recognized private sectors contribution and further promote teamwork along with private schools then more output that is stunning would surface. Thus, in so speaking, this study saves to encourage education policy makers to enrich policy mechanism for collaboration and possible embolden of private schools for more enrolment in STEM education. This is in parallel with the implementation of SDG4 realization in 2030. It is also clear that passing in both physics and basic mathematics determines the potential of STEM career prospects from secondary schools ( Table 5, Table 6).

Conclusion and recommendations

Private schools’ reflection of balancing gender in STEM education in the case of Mbeya city offers a great step toward achieving SDG4 of the United Nations. The author recommends policy makers to engage private schools in addressing the challenges of gender equity in STEM education in a collaborative manner rather than other way around with public schools. STEM education stakeholders need to stress not only STEM careers position in the 21st century of job placements but also the importance of taking both basic mathematics and physics as determinants of STEM career for secondary school students. Basic mathematics alone is not enough.

This study is calling for further investigation as to why in the same nation with likely the same environment, private schools outperformed public schools to such a great extent. The researcher shall explore both parties separately to acquire reliable information to share experiences to avert the situation in public schools.