EXPERIENCE IN PROMOTING FEMALE PARTICIPATION IN SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING TRAINING BY MBEYA INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
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Date
2008-02-29
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Msambichaka
Abstract
Mbeya Institute of Science and Technology is one of four Government Technical Institutions
in Tanzania. Education and Training in these Technical Institutions are based on Science and
Engineering fields. The basic catchments areas are the students who have completed
Ordinary Secondary Schools Education with good passes in science subjects. More male
students are opting to study science subjects in Ordinary Secondary Schools than female
students. This attributes to more male students to enroll in Technical Institutions than female
students due to the limited number of female students from the catchments areas. There are
very few female students with good passes in science subjects who can be enrolled in these
Institutions. In order to promote female participation in science and engineering fields,
technical institutions have adopted an affirmative action whereby female students with low
passes in science subjects are provided with special access course programmes. Those who
pass Access Course examinations are allowed to continue with the course of three years at
technician level. This initiative has attributed to a promising progress in enrollments of
female students in technical institutions. There are few challenges which Technical
Institutions are facing; funding is one of the main challenges which negatively impact on this
programme. Some of the female students with low passes in science subjects and who are
interested with this field are coming from poor families, that they can not afford to pay a little
tuition fee contributions, little payment for accommodation and they can not even afford to
pay for their own meals. This paper explains the experience of Mbeya Institute of Science
and Technology in using the Access Course Programmes to increase the female students’
enrollments in Science and Engineering training.
Description
This Article was published byProf. Msambichaka,2008