While access to education for women has steadily increased in India over the last decade, we are far from achieving gender equality. For instance, the gross attendance ratio of girls in rural areas is only 58%, indicating that nearly 42% of girls enrolled at this stage do not attend schools regularly (MHRD, 2018). In higher education, girls who pursue science subjects are found to congregate in certain courses which support traditionally female-dominated occupations, like nursing (86% girls to 14% boys).The Secondary Schools program is a digital fluency and life skills curriculum designed to help girls in government secondary schools break gender stereotypes, and builds critical thinking and problem-solving through coding. 

There is also a gender gap, particularly in courses related to science, mathematics and engineering. The gap further widens due to poor school-to-work-transition, where women constitute only 14% of the total STEM workers in India, compared to the world average of 28.8%. Further, a high digital gender gap adversely impacts women’s education and employment.The Secondary Schools program at Quest Alliance is a digital fluency and life skills curriculum designed to help girls in government secondary schools break gender stereotypes, and builds critical thinking and problem-solving through coding. Through this program, Quest Alliance aims to give a push to education at the secondary education level, encouraging students to complete 10th grade and pursue higher education. The program will introduce technology skills to girls and boys in secondary schools who are first generation users of mobiles and computers. Given that secondary school is a critical period for students to become aware of career pathways, students will be introduced to the process of career exploration with a focus on STEM pathways.The program is reaching out to 1.21 lakh adolescents out of which 76,993 were girls across grades VIII and IX.

• Digital Literacy: Provides experiential learning of coding via the scratch platform
• Career: Enabling girls to forecast their careers and chart pathways
• Gender Focus: Encourages more girls to pursue higher education in STEM fields, widening their career prospects in digital and technology-driven jobs
• Nurturing Environments: Through engagements with parents, teachers, principals and government, building champions for more girls pursuing STEM as careers.