How school infrastructure shapes science subjects
As part of the 2017 World Teachers’ Day celebration, experts gathered at the Lagos Business School (LBS) to discuss the imperatives of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education in the current age of technology.
The eggheads were unanimous that Nigeria’s future in technology is tied to STEM education.
It was a symposium and awards ceremony with the theme, ‘Promoting Excellence in STEM Teaching and Learning’ organised by the Star Deep Water Petroleum Limited (a Chevron company) and the Agbami parties Famfa Oil Limited - NNPC, Petrobras and Statoil.
The symposium, which featured awards presented to winners of a recent science and technology competition, brought together educators and stakeholders to appraise the state of STEM education in the country and factors hindering the effective teaching and learning of the subjects.
Over the years, the four subjects which form the acronym, ‘STEM’ have been treated as separate subjects in Nigeria’s secondary schools and educational institutions. However, stakeholders are clamouring for the integration of the subjects to mould and build a generation of scientists that would take over from experts who call the shots in the country.
The stakeholders said following the failure of the country to integrate and harmonize the four subjects, many students, especially those who specialise in sciences, might have proficiency in one or two of the four while being deficient in the others.
To bridge the lacuna, the Chevron companies put up the symposium to stimulate discussions among experts and stakeholders with a view to having an improved climate for the teaching and learning of STEM in Nigerian postprimary educational institutions.
As part of the symposium, there was a panel of discussants which focused on the sub-theme, ‘STEM Education - Empowering the Next Generation of Game-Changers’. The panellists included the General Manager, Policy, Government and Public Affairs of Chevron Nigeria, Mr. Esimaje Brikinn, Chief Revenue Officer, Dragnet Solutions Limited, Mr. Baba Ikazoboh; CEO Global International College, Mrs. Abolaji Osime and founder, the Teaching Network Foundation, Dr. Dolapo Ogunbanwo.
The Director, Star Deep Water Petroleum Limited, Mr. Richard Kennedy, said the programme was designed to identify issues in Nigeria’s STEM education reforms and provide strategies to ensure that STEM education is elevated to a national priority.
According to the director, STEM education is what the country requires “to evolve the scientific and technological innovations needed to face the challenges of globalisation and build an evolving knowledge-based economy.”
He said to succeed in this new information-based and technologydriven global society, Nigerian youths need to develop their capabilities in STEM to levels far exceeding what was considered acceptable in the past.
“Science, technology, engineering and mathematics are undeniably some of the key subjects to study now because of the need for Nigeria to evolve the scientific and technological innovations needed to face the challenges of globalisation and build an evolving knowledge-based economy,” he said.
He said as part of the Agbami parties’ contribution to the growth of STEM, no fewer than 16,000 students from all the states of Nigeria have benefitted from the Agbami medical and engineering scholarships. Out of the beneficiaries of the scheme which started in 2008, 456 graduated with first class honours.
He disclosed that the Agbami parties have also spent over N2.5 billion on education infrastructure support since 2008, saying, “We have built, furnished and equipped 33 science laboratories and eight hybrid libraries across the country, which in addition to the benefits to the students, have also empowered 38 local community contractors during their construction.”
In the presence of students from some selected primary and secondary schools in Lagos, the Chevron GM explained that the organisers packaged the programme to galvanise stakeholders’ discussion on the imperative of STEM education in the fast growing global world.
He said education worldwide has moved from theoretical exposure to problem-solving approach which tasks the thinking abilities of children.
The General Manager, Policy, Government and Public Affairs of Chevron Nigeria, Mr. Esimaje Brikinn, said Chevron had identified infrastructural gap as one of the factors discouraging the teaching and learning of STEM, and explained why the parties in the project put infrastructure in 33 schools.
“The impact has been very enormous as some of the beneficiaries, 456 of them, graduated with first class,” he said.
For the CEO of Global International College (GIC), Mrs. Abolaji Osime, Nigeria is far away in STEM education, saying businesses worldwide are now technology-enabled.
“All we are doing in our schools is to get the students cram and regurgitate during examinations. We are not talking about problem-solving,” she said.
Mrs. Osime traced the root of the problem to the curriculum which she described as very “watery.”
Unlike her school where she said Canadian, US and British curricula were combined to expose the students to a wide variety of concepts, Nigeria’s system has been the same over the years.
“We need to overhaul the whole system. We should realise we have an emergency at hand,” she added.
Baba Ikazobor of Dragnet Solutions Limited said parents and counsellors need to be guided on the import of STEM education and in preparing students for the complex problem-solving, critical thinking and creative abilities driven by STEM.