Last week the parliament’s economy and education committees came together to discuss the STEM report produced by the Flemish Council for Science and Innovation. It deals not only with the question of sufficient STEM teachers in Flemish schools but also looks at the numbers of students, and especially girls, taking classes in STEM subjects.

The report begins with a clear appeal: “It is now time for action. The agreements and commitments that have been made need to be made binding and a realistic budget set aside. We call on all government partners to set their shoulders to the wheel.”

A year ago, the government of Flanders adopted its STEM action plan for 2012-2020, which set as its goal “to increase the human capital in STEM subjects so as to better meet the needs of the knowledge economy and the labour market”.

Another aim was to increase the number of students focusing on STEM subjects. At the same time, the number of girls opting for STEM would be increased to one in three of all STEM students, “with special attention for the extreme gender imbalance in certain study areas”.

It’s a girl thing

Extreme is not too severe a word: According to Wilson De Pril, director-general of the technology industry federation Agoria, “women are seriously under-represented in the technology sector, and that’s also the case in technical education. In engineering, 84% of the students are male. In technology companies, the percentage can be as high as 87%.”

In the meantime, the number of open vacancies, about 10,000, in these sectors seems intractable: Men alone are not enough to fill the requirements of Flemish industry.

It’s not only a problem in Flanders, and the European Commission has launched the website “Science: it’s a girl thing”, which includes a series of video testimonies from women scientists. Among them is Eline Meul, a student in bio-engineering at Ghent University and Joanna Zmurko, a Polish woman studying virology at the University of Leuven.

Meanwhile, Flemish education minister Pascal Smet told the joint committee that the STEM steering group, chaired by Martine Tempels (pictured), a vice-president of Telenet and last year’s ICT Woman of the Year, met for the first time last month. “They will examine how the action plan can be realised and how an appropriate strategy can be developed. They’re very enthusiastic about putting the plan into action, but right now they need time to work it out further.”

Ann Brusseel, a member of the Flemish parliament who sits on the education and equal opportunities committee, called on schools to “battle the gender stereotypical prejudices” that discourage girls from studying STEM subjects. “Universities and university colleges need to target female students actively for those disciplines. … They must not be allowed to ignore this pool of talent.”

www.science-girl-thing.eu