Female students have for the first time overtaken their male counterparts in science courses after taking more slots in science fields in middle-level colleges.
Placement data shows more female students will this year pursue science and mathematics courses compared to males.
The women have broken the old gender disparity in science, technology, engineering and mathematics courses.
But men still dominate enrolment in STEM courses. Of the 37,369 students placed in the middle-level colleges, 20,379 are male and 16900 female.
In this year’s placement, 58,851 students were enrolled under government sponsorship to pursue courses in technical and vocational institutions.
In mathematics 2,166 students are female and 1,372 are male, while in sciences 8,115 are female and 3,000 are male.
The science enrollments show that in every 10 students seven are female and three male.
However, there is a big disparity in favour of male students in engineering where 80 per cent of those enrolled are male and 20 per cent female.
Agriculture and technology related courses are even in enrollment, with only a slight difference of one per cent between the genders.
Universities
Women are yet to close the gender gap in universities where male students continue to dominate in STEM enrollment.
Even more alarming is the revelation that enrollment of girls in STEM dropped compared to last year.
