FOSTERING FEMALE PARTICIPATION IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY THROUGH ENHANCED CURRICULUM DELIVERY USING INFORMATION TECHNOLOYGY

Abstract

The advancement and sustainability of any nation depends on science and technology. Over the years, women are seen to have improved in their quota of contributing to nation building and development, however, their participation in science and technology is very low compared to their male counterparts. A major cause of this has been traced to mode of curriculum content delivery in science and technology-based courses. This paper, therefore developed a teaching framework that fosters female participation in science and technology through enhanced curriculum delivery using Information Technology. Statistical analysis was further conducted through quantitative research that administered questionnaires to 50 participants each from the 7 departments in the school of Management Studies of the Federal Polytechnic Ilaro, totaling 350 participants, to seek the reason behind the student’s choice of courses into management studies and not Science and Technology based courses. Out of the research instruments administered for the research study, 91.1% was returned in which the analysis was based upon. Analysis was done using descriptive statistics. The result from this analysis indicated that 49.2% avoided Science and Technology based courses because of the mode of curriculum content delivery that made the courses look difficult, 23.8% avoided it because of their belief that science based courses are difficult, 16.9% have passion for Management courses while 10% just found themselves studying Management courses because of issues with their WAEC result combination. This research study recommends that the curriculum should be enhanced using Information Technology as the driving tool to increase female participation in STEM courses.