Council Tasks FG On Science, Technology Dev

The Executive Secretary of

Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC), Prof. Godswill Obioma, has called on the Federal Government to make the promotion of Science and Technology, as well as vocational education and training, a top priority to actualise the objectives of the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS) and Vision 20:20-20.

Prof. Obioma, who made the call during a one-day workshop in Enugu, recently, stated that in an effort to invigorate Science, Technology and Mathematics (STM) education in the nation’s schools, the council decided to reverse all existing STM curricular for Senior Secondary Schools (SSS).

The NERDC boss, also reminded all the participants at the workshop, made up of stakeholders in the education sector and professionals, that the nation’s economy could only be transformed and sustained through education that empowers the people, adding that the ongoing curriculum reform initiatives in the country today emphasised value re-orientation, poverty eradication and employment generation capabilities in learners.

He explained that the curriculum is expected to provide the contents and further learning experiences that would engender the acquisition of functional skills for job creation and wealth generation which would eventually lead to the reduction of poverty within the communities and the nation at large.

“Specifically, Science, Technology and Vocational Education and Training is expected to provide the contents, learning experiences and skills for the socio-economic transformation of the Nigerian nation”, Obioma said.

He, however, decried the inadequacy or lack of structures and appropriate activities that foster effective STM education in the country’s schools such as teacher quality, scarcity of relevant support materials for teachers and inadequate supervision and monitoring of teachers.

According to him, the project which, he said, was a collaboration between NERDC and Science and Technology Education Post Basic (STEP-B) project, was a World Bank supported intervention of the Federal Ministry of Education for Nigerian Post Basic Education and Research Sub-sector.

He further explained that a major component of the project was to provide teachers with appropriate guide for the implementation of the new SSS Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Mathematics curricula.

The Executive Secretary stated that the project would develop teacher support materials for implementing the updated curricula; organise teacher capacity building workshops on the use of the curriculum materials, rataionale, philosophy, suggested methodology for content delivery and implementation strategies, monitor the introduction of the curriculum in schools, as well as monitor teachers for effective classroom delivery curricula contents.

Obioma, disclosed that the Enugu workshop was the second in the series of such workshops planned for the development of Teachers Guides for the teaching of the new SSE Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Mathematics curricula.

According to him, universities, colleges of education, divisions that will run education progrommes and colleges of education that train Senior Secondary School teachers have started this process”.