By
Anote Ajeluorou
The
yearly University Press Plc’s Authors Forum was held last week at Kakanfo Inn,
Ibadan, with a gathering of scholars and intellectuals. Although this year’s
keynote is a departure from the regular one that usually dwells on books and
related issues, this year’s did not fail to excite on account of the lecturer
and the manner he handled his topic, which was on science and technology and
how Nigeria has failed to make the most of it for its developmental needs.
Present at the event was such eminent scholars
and academics as Profs. Ayo Banjo, Niyi Osundare, Femi Osofisan, Managing
Director, UP Plc, Mr. Samuel Kolawole, Prof. Remi Raji-Oyelade, Eze Prof Chukwuemeka Ike and a host of
others.
Delivering the keynote was the Provost,
Federal College of Education and African Regional Representative on the
International Council of Association of Science Education, Prof. Mamman Audu
Wasagu. He spoke on ‘Science Education as an Entrepreneurship Platform and
Career Opportunities for Sustainable Youth Employment’. The import of his
lecture rested on the premise that with a growing youthful population and an
ever-widening gap in unemployment, Nigeria was walking the tight rope. It was
time, therefore, something urgent was done to arrest the situation. With
sectarian threats all over the country and youths becoming ready recruits for
their nefarious activities, it was time to do more than pay lip-service to
issues of unemployment by all strata of society, especially government and
corporate citizens.
While bemoaning Nigeria’s poor attitude to
strengthening science education that should usher in technological advancement and
attract corporate patronage, Wasagu said attention should be paid to governance
structure and how it has added to the sundry woes bedeviling the country. For
him, “poverty and illiteracy are indices of bad governance. Until we can solve
poverty and illiteracy problems, we cannot guarantee good governance”. Using
the recent Ekiti State’s governorship elections, Wasagu said, “Credible
elections do not guarantee good governance”.
Instead of educating today’s youths, the
professor of science said education in Nigeria was deepening illiteracy because
of policy summersaults, especially as it concerns activities of Nigerian
Educational Research and Development Commission (NERDC), which he said must
stop its rapid change in curriculum so as to stabilize the educational system
for development. He said there was nothing bad with Nigeria’s educational
system that NERDC keeps tinkering with all the time. He, however, stated that problem
of implementation was what bedevils it. He said the 6-3-3-4 system that was
copied from the U.S. was still being used there with great results, and “is
seen as the golden system as everyone wants to go there to study”, but this was
different from what obtains in Nigeria’s application of the same system.
For science education to be meaningful, Wasagu
said it must have technology as its by-play otherwise such science education
would become sterile. He argued that while science concerns itself with
knowledge, technology is its application to enterprise or entrepreneurship that
should bring about employment. In bringing this analogy to bear on current
trends in Nigeria’s technological situation, Wasagu came to the conclusion that
the country was far from attaining technological drive.
In all Wasagu canvasses for the type of
educational that encourages entrepreneurship for the purpose of solving
unemployment problems in society. He also encouraged youths to have
entrepreneurship mentality that would remove their minds from paid employment.
Such entrepreneurship minds would be such that involves the creative process,
requires devoting time and efforts towards creating things, involves reward and
risk-taking.
Such youths must be goal-getter, culture of
work, creativeness and persuasiveness, must build skills, know-how and risk
tolerance as being integral to the success venture.
But Wasagu was also mindful of the
contribution of all strata of society for the success of technology-driven
society. He argued that government and industries must be ready to fund
research and incorporate every bit of technology that is developed locally into
mainstream as means of encouraging innovations coming from institutions. He
stated that unless this done, Nigeria would continue to be the highest importer
of finished goods from Asia and the rest of the world.
To stem the tide of such high import to the
country, he said, “Neither our industries nor the governments are ready to fund
research and development in the country; this has partly contributed to the low
value addition of raw material such that a large percentage of our
manufacturing industries have shut down while others are simply in ailing
conditions; there’s doubt that our current paradigm for science and technology,
especially the way and manner we conduct, finance and perhaps distributes its
services may not lead us to the promiseland”.
Continuing, Wasagu stated, “Therefore, we
need a transformation agenda through the use of science and technology that
will lead and fuel the emergence of a 21st century workforce highly adept at
meeting the needs of the public, private and labour markets to usher in growth
in jobs opportunities and wealth creation’ changing in economic competitiveness
are creating an increasing demand for science and technology education and
teaching competent young boys and girls with requisite skills and science and
technology curricula must change to reflect the skills required in modern
markets”.
On the often-stated view that the west should
transfer technology to Africa, Wasagu said such was vain wish that would never
work. He said what works is either that technology is created from within or
stolen from wherever it can be found! He urged Nigeria to imitate what happens
in the west where governments and industries invest heavily in Science, Technology,
Engineering and Mathematics education otherwise referred to as STEM. He added,
“Many contemporary policymakers consider widespread STEM literary as well as
specific STEM expertise to be critical human capital competencies for a 21st
century economy”.
In this vein of making science through
technology to help solve problems, Wasagu made a case for what the objective of
science education should be, noting, “The traditional view of science that we
once knew as curiosity-driven truth-seeking has significantly diminished and
the professional scientist is now more likely to hold a dominant understanding
of science as market-oriented, pre-competitive and administrative, providing
exciting and long overdue opportunities”.
For Wasagu and all progressive-minded people,
entrepreneurship holds the key to job creation, which in turn rests what
scientific and technological advances can make possible. However, for this to
happen, he argued that there should be paradigm shift in the educational system
from ‘less content or theory to skill acquisition that leads to
entrepreneurship”.
In concluding, wasagu stated, “Strengthen the
curricula in entrepreneurship, encourage annual career talk for the promotion
of awareness of career pathways and opportunities, increase public awareness on
the value of early stage entrepreneurship in science education, reduce bad
governance and tackle science illiteracy through the provision of equal to
quality science education”.
During the question and answer session, novelist
Ike recalled the technology that was developed in war-ravaged Biafra during the
country’s 30-month civil war, and condemned Nigeria’s attitude towards technological
development. He said Biafra, pressed to the wall, was able to refine the fuel
it used after Port Harcourt fell to the federal forces. He enumerated all
manner of weaponry and other usable technologies that were developed at the
time that eventually fell to disuse after the war.
Ike said, “Biafra taught us to use our
brains. When Port Harcourt fell, Biafra had to refine its own oil or collapse.
What is oil refining? When you heat crude oil to certain degree, you get kerosene;
heat it to another level, you get diesel; and heat it to another degree, you
get petrol. But Nigeria didn’t want ot create the impression that anything good
came out of Biafra. Crude oil is being refined in the Niger Delta by local
hands. We can do many things productively if we choose to use our hands!”
ON
his part, Chairman, University Press Plc, Dr. Lalekan Are welcome guests to the
sixth annual Authors Forum, as the company’s efforts and commitment to its
drive as the nation’s foremost publishers. He noted, “This gathering offers us
the opportunity to reflect on what we have been doing, and what more that we
need to do to reshape our society. Thus, more than ever before, we must gear up
for the challenges the present times have placed on our laps. We owe it a duty
to ourselves and our children to come up with quality content in order to
achieve the bright future of our dream.
“The
shocking unemployment rate in Nigeria is in sharp contrast to the robust
economic growth rate suggested by the national accounts data. Many young
Nigerian men and women, after leaving school, are not gainfully employed for
individual and national development. This is due, in part, to poor policy
planning and implementation in our educational system, especially science
education.
“Interestingly, scientific knowledge and its
applications are deployed to the creation of job and entrepreneurial
opportunities in developed nations. This they achieve by fashioning a school
system that teaches students the actualization of scientific processes for the
purpose of creating wealth for individual and collective benefit. The
educational system in such countries revolves round inspiring young minds to
undertake researches that explore the sustainable usage of resources at a rate
at which they can be replaced naturally for self actualization and national
development. This we have even seen in the Asian countries, where young school
leavers are able to invent and innovate ideas and technological products to
solve society’s needs.
“In other words, science education is the
bedrock upon which scientific and technological advancement, which drive
national development depends. In essence, science and technology education is
critical to the elimination of unemployment and the realization of sustainable
youth empowerment in Nigeria.
“It is in view of this that Professor Mamman
Audu Wassagu, a renown science educationist is here amongst us to present a
keynote address on Science Education and Entrepreneurship Platform and Career
Opportunities for Sustainable Youth Empowerment. It is our hope that his presentation will be of great benefit to
us as authors, teachers, lecturers, students and parents”.
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