Co-author: Elyas Tampubolon
5 minutes read
What can young girls from tribal schools in rural Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan region of India do if they are empowered with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) Education?
The possibilities are evidently endless. From inventing an automatic vegetable chopper or dough-kneading machine to building a vacuum cleaner out of trash, and constructing a portable computer using raspberry pi[1]. Going one step further to create products that are so impressive they could compete at a national science fair in New Delhi against products created by students from more privileged urban schools. This is what Mantra4Change, an AVPN STEM Fund grantee, shared during our conversation in January.
Mantra4Change is an India-based non-profit aspiring to ensure every child thrives by enhancing quality and equity in education through leadership capacity enhancement at the school and system levels. They are one of six grantees who received flexible funding from the AVPN STEM Fund, which is a philanthropic pooled fund that was designed to increase access to STEM learning opportunities for girls from low-income families and disadvantaged groups in Singapore, India, Malaysia, Japan, and Taiwan.
STEM Education is crucial to sustainable development. Exposure to STEM can nurture problem-solving, critical thinking, and communication skills which are consequential for innovative solutions to address the critical challenges we face. Yet, in a country like India, where persisting social and cultural stereotypes hinder the educational attainment of girls and women, thereby restricting their future employment prospects, only 14% of women make a career in STEM. This number can be more depressing in some states, like Rajasthan, where only 1% of women are effectively engaged in STEM careers. The absence of role models and consequently, aspiration, in pursuing a career in STEM is further exacerbated by the lack of enabling infrastructure and access to resources in STEM education at the secondary level where an early decision to pursue a career is usually made.
Andhra Pradesh, a state with a significant tribal population, who are the most disadvantaged social and economic community in the country, is a key example. While the state government has built Residential Schools to mitigate the social, economic, and educational challenges faced by students statewide, most of the schools do not yet offer science classes. The few who do offer the subject, to this day, are not equipped with science labs.
To address this critical gap, Mantra4Change built 15 low-cost Tinkering labs in schools across Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan, offering students access to STEM education. All these schools primarily serve female students who are from the most disadvantaged caste and often below the poverty line. Around 90% of the girls attending the schools are first-generation learners in their families. The STEM labs present this underserved segment of society with hands-on experience that can lead to improved follow-on career prospects.
In addition to investing in enabling infrastructure, Mantra4Change also enhances educators’ capacity to teach science and to do so in a more fun and exciting way by incorporating experiential and activity-based learning. The organisation has worked with 30 teachers from the two states to equip them with the skills to develop customised learning frameworks for scientific concepts such as electricity, magnetism, light, and basic electronics. The objective is to inspire and motivate teachers by supporting them to transform the way they drive learning outcomes in their classrooms. The results have been encouraging. Participating schools have seen improvements in their students’ performance. Based on the baseline assessment conducted by the team, the average student’s score was 44%, and 6 months later, when they conducted the endline assessment, students scored 76%, thus resulting to a 70% jump in STEM concept comprehension resulting in a 77% increase in students or 2,310 students, scoring 80% or higher in assessments within only six months. At the end of the grant period, Mantra4Change has benefited 3,000 students and 30 teachers.
There are two key factors that have been instrumental in catalysing this change, demonstrating the potential impact of STEM education in breaking down gender-based barriers in underserved communities. These are:
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Trust and Flexibility
Mantra4Change highlights that the trust enabled by flexible funding fuels their work. STEM interventions require a lot of innovation and design thinking. flexible funding provides them the space to explore different approaches and a safety net even in the face of potential failure in the process as well.
Furthermore, trust and flexibility allow them to direct the resources to where it’s most needed. While education is among the top two causes that receive the most funding from CSR initiatives in India, this support is unfortunately skewed to urban projects. Flexible funding allows Mantra4Change to reach underserved rural communities, for example, girls from tribal communities in Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan. Going one step further, the funding has also allowed the organisation to secure additional support from the government and other philanthropic funders to scale up this initiative in other states.
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Partnership
From the onset, Mantra4Change has worked closely with the government and other institutions like MJP society (Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Andhra Pradesh Backward Classes Welfare Residential Educational Institutions) and Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya in Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan respectively. These partnerships have been critical to reaching the targeted female students and science teachers in the states, enabling Mantra4change to achieve the outcomes they had envisioned.
The AVPN STEM Fund in itself embodies the spirit of collective action. The Fund is a collaborative endeavour by Micron Foundation, Lenovo Foundation, XTX Markets, BHP, and Chevron. By pooling funds from a diversity of funders AVPN has been able to effectively mobilise philanthropic capital to support impact organisations like Mantra4Change, which are driving STEM education outcomes across Asia.
The case example of Mantra4Change is an important reminder of the power of trust, flexibility, and collective action in driving change. By providing flexible funding and embracing innovative approaches, we can unlock the potential of organisations like Mantra4Change to catalyse transformative impact in underserved communities. It is only by taking a systematic and collaborative approach that we can nurture the next generation of scientists, engineers, and innovators who can break the cycle of gender inequality and poverty.
[1] Raspberry Pi is a series of tiny, affordable computers developed by the Raspberry Pi Foundation in the UK Magical Kite
