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By Agatha Emeadi
The Scientific Products Association of Nigeria (SPAN) has called on policy makers and all relevant stakeholders to urgently upgrade the science curricula from analogue to digital for all levels of science education in Nigeria.
SPAN, which made the call at a conference held recently in Lagos, said that this has become very urgent and necessary as globally, the 21st Century science education offers complete skill sets and solutions to increase science literacy, with opportunities to explore evidence-based factual-lifetime phenomena. The group noted that the global language of science has long been transformed from analogue to digital.
This is as experts at the conference observed that the cost for effectively equipping an educational institution for digital curriculum with equipment that are based on STEM pedagogy is about one-third of the cost of its analogue equivalent.
Nigeria and her people, they agreed, need to step up to modern science to ensure the effective teaching and learning of the 21st Century science and technology in the country, which will equip its graduates with the skills needed to develop the relevant concepts and applications of science, technology and engineering practices, and which in turn will lead to significant innovations and inventions for all areas of life.
“With the enormous advantages modernized science education portends for Nigeria, and indeed for Africa, it is baffling that students in the 21st Century in Nigeria are taught with analogue science curricula and analogue equipment. The question is: why are we not doing digital? Kudos, therefore, should go to the very few educational institutions such as the Lagos State and a few universities who have embraced or are in the process of adopting digital science pedagogy. Presently, the mantra for Nigeria as the giant of Africa should be ‘catch them young in the field of science and technology and watch them rule the world'”, the conference stated.
Also at the conference, SPAN presented its updated constitution, along with its newly designed website and social media handles. The theme of the conference was, “Quality Science in the 21st Century: Making Science Relevant in Nigeria.”
Speaking at the event, the President of the association, who is also the Chief Executive Officer of The Katchey Group, Mrs. Kate Isa, reiterated that it is now a common knowledge that science has been a veritable vehicle for national economic development and growth.
She said: “Suffice it to say that industrialization of nations would not have been possible without science and technology.
“It is now common knowledge that science has always been a veritable vehicle for national economic development and growth. The industrialization of nations would not have been possible without science and technology. ”Therefore, prodigious attention should be given to science education and research in Nigeria because it is an important component of societal development for innovations, inventions, discovery of products, solutions and services for our teeming population.
“Even as the world’s language of science has since changed from analogue to digital, Nigerian talented youths are willing to gladly embrace science and technology. Recall in 2019 how five girls from Regina Pacis school represented Nigeria and Africa at the World Technovation challenge in the Silicon Valley, San Francisco, United States. They won the gold medal in the contest, thereby putting Nigeria and Africa on the global technological map with their rare talents. The girls defeated representatives of true technological giants, including the USA, Spain, Turkey, Uzbekistan and China, to clinch the gold medal.
“The teenage girls won the challenge with a mobile application called the FD-Detector, which they developed to help tackle the challenges of fake pharmaceutical products in Nigeria. This is a good example of science made relevant – applying the scientific concepts they learnt at school to solve real life problems in the local environment.
“Over the years of bilateral and multilateral trades, it has been discovered that scientific products from other countries do not always optimally fit the desired purpose for their purchase and use in Nigeria because they were not originally developed with the peculiar environmental and demographic characteristics of Nigeria.
“Against this background, therefore, Nigeria needs indigenous inventors, innovators, researchers, investors and scientists who will be raised and effectively trained from the grassroots with the modern skills to research, discover and produce products and solutions that aptly fit the needs of the Nigerian people.”
SPAN, therefore, noted that Nigeria’s present realities cannot stand the test of time within the global world especially with countries like America, adding that the country needs urgent intervention, especially in all institutions of learning.
“We want all relevant stakeholders to ensure that our scientific research institutes are adequately staffed with well trained personnel, and equipped with modern laboratory and research equipment, for the effective deployment of science and technology to birth relevant solutions for our people, thereby making science truly relevant in Nigeria,” it said.
