Abstract
Evidences from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pakistan show girls’ out-performance and boys’ underperformance in school and colleges level examinations. Despite of girls' outstanding performance in school and college examination, they are not catching up with boys in science subjects in terms of achieving high grades. This paper aims to unpack the prevailing reasons of girls' underperformance in science subjects in elementary, secondary and higher secondary schools examinations in the capital city of Peshawar- Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). It focuses on girls' underperformance in Elementary, Secondary School Certificate and Higher Secondary School Certificate Annual examinations of the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE) Peshawar, KP. The article uses secondary and primary data. The secondary data consist of results records of BISE, Peshawar KP and primary data come from qualitative interviews with 20 school and college teachers (10 males & 10 females). The selection of teachers was done with the help of purposive sampling technique. The study comes up with diverse explanation for girls’ underperformance and boys’ outperformance in science subjects. The explanation encompasses the traditional beliefs in science subjects as masculine domain, gender stereotypes among parents, teachers, and the gendered belief about jobs opportunities available to boys and girls in sociocultural context of KP. The findings of the study recommend that girls can do well in science subjects if they are given favorable and conducive environment.
Keyword(s)
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