STEM education is basically introduced to foster the teaching of subjects such as Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. The Australian Government is of the view that these four subjects are of utmost importance to secure the future of students. Because in the coming era, the employment opportunities and the professions of the students or people will be centralized in these aspects.

The Australian Government is trying to enforce the STEM education in all the educational institutions in Australia. The Australian government has already invested approximately $ 64 million in the STEM education process.

Now let’s see the projects related to STEM education the Australian Government is introducing in the educational sector in Australia –

1 # The first STEM project the Australian legal authorities are undertaking is Digital Age measure as per the National Innovation and Science Agenda and the money the Government is investing in this project is about $ 51 million.

2 # Next project the Australian Government is taking an endeavor under the STEM process is introducing Artificial Intelligence in schools and colleges, this will help the schools and colleges to grow more and the academic progress of students will be improved too. The revenue that the Australian Government is incurring on this project is around $ 1.5 million.

Different people have different opinions about Stem education in Australia. Some say that STEM education focusses on the disciplinary subjects. Others say that STEM is a way of preaching the four subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) with the help of explaining the hypothetical instances and by making connections to the real-life world.  

But STEM is not only related to the mere four disciplined areas nor it replaces the current educational trends and standards. In fact, it is introduced to help the students to grasp the strong knowledge and skills about various professions so that they may be able to cope up with the challenges that they may face in the future professional work areas.

Let’s see some key elements of STEM education

 1. The students are taken outdoors and made them learn practically doing the things the teacher taught them. In short, outdoor learning sessions are conducted.

 2. More emphasis is laid on what the students have learned and not on the annual assessment and content. And also, the students are given less essay writing tasks for which a great deal of time was wasted on taking help from essay helper online to formulate the quality essay writings.

 3. The students are allowed to form partnerships and associations with the students, organizations, teachers, universities outside so as to provide high- quality STEM education to students.

 4. Evidence-based teaching is conducted.

5. The students are taught by providing active and meaningful learning sessions. Inquiry-based learning is enforced where all the problems of students are given due concentration and they are taught how to solve the problems by themselves.

Some areas for national action of STEM education – 

The STEM education is introduced largely under these areas which are:

•  Pre-schools
• Vocational education and training units
• Workplaces
• Higher education
• Colleges and universities
• Primary schools

 STEM changes and challenges –

There are some challenges in STEM education as it has been surveyed worldwide that the greatest challenge in stem education is student’s motivation. Teachers also face a lot of challenges in this field.

Here are some of the challenges which are faced by modern era teachers as well as pupils –

1. Student boredom – Student boredom is a big challenge for teachers because it has been analyzed that some students do not like to study science, some don’t like math, some don’t like engineering and technology. So, it is the biggest problem that is becoming a hurdle in the enforcement of STEM education.  
2.  Reality-based learning – Sometimes the schools and colleges and also teachers don’t have the caliber to deliver reality-based learning to students.
3.  Going Digital – As all the educational set-up is going digital, some teachers, as well as educational institutions, are unable to cope up with the Digital world. Stem education is also significantly dependent on Artificial Intelligence.
4.  Gender divide – The ratio of men to women is large in the STEM education process. Women are overlooked in some countries to participate more in the STEM education scenario.

So, what can be done to remove these challenges in the STEM education process?

A number of initiatives have been taken to remove all these aforementioned barriers in STEM education.  

Let’s see what are the efforts that have been done to remove the barriers –

• The best way to counteract the problem of lack of interest in students in some subjects is teaching the students these subjects at an early age. Various educational units have started the STEM education programs in their schools at a very early stage so that the students may develop an urge in themselves to study these four subjects more.
• Practical activities and sessions on the four disciplinary subjects are conducted in schools to foster the interest of students in these subjects.
• The technology can help the teachers and schools to cope up with the modern digitalized education, the schools and educational institutions are providing training to the teachers and staff so that they can understand the tricks of the digital world.
•  Initiatives are underway to include more women in the STEM education process. The Girls are advocated in the STEM education in various fields such as Black girls code, National Girls Collaborative Project, Girls who code and many more.

It has been analyzed that STEM education is the future of students as the whole employment set up will be based on the four areas which are described under the STEM process. That is why the STEM is also called as “The future of work” for students.