Minister opens workshop on Science &Technology
The Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology has started a five-day training workshop in a bid to popularize science in the educational sector.
The workshop which targeted 60 secondary school teacher under-achievers in the Western Area took place at the NCTVA Hall, Tower Hill from Monday 20th through Friday, May 24th 2013. The theme for the workshop is ‘Demystifying Science by Coming Face to Face with Science’.
Speaking on behalf of the Education Minister, the Chief Education Officer Dr. Mohamed Alhaji Kamara said the topic of discussion for the workshop is significant and timely since the country has revitalized the issue of science and technology and both now feature prominently in the development programmes of the country.
He said that it is not a hidden secret that our country inherited a system of education from our colonial masters that hardly had any basis for the development of our middle level manpower, and he urged teachers and lecturers to prove scientific and technological knowledge relevant for the development of the present generation, posterity, and the society at large, as there is greater need to focus on science education as a discipline and a cultural pursuit.
He said that the task ahead of us in demystifying science and coming face to face with science is not easy but also it is not insurmountable and that the workshop should provide the opportunity for each and every one to raise awareness about the importance of science and its contribution to the country’s developmental targets.
In his opening remarks, the Director of Higher Education, Science and Technology, Nabieu Mohamed Kamara, said the principal objective of the five day workshop is encouraging as it is geared towards promoting the study of science in the country so that at the end of the day, the country will produce the likes of Professors Redwood Sawyer, S.P.T. Gbaamabnja, Professor Yormah, etc.
He said it will develop a positive mental attitude to the study of science, noting that there are clear indications from observations that science teaching in Sierra Leone is still mostly through the traditional lecture methods, and expressed the hope that at the end of the workshop, participants will be able to identify strategies to overcome such ugly incidence in the teaching and learning of science in our institutions.
Mr. Nebieu also stated that the method has contributed to the poor performance in science at WASSCE level, depriving Sierra Leone of “21st century skills” required for our industries and medical delivery systems, noting that the alarming rate of failure is causing the number of students who opt for science and mathematics at tertiary level to be always very small.
Martin Momoh, Secretary General of the Sierra Leone Association of Maths and Science Teachers (SLAMAST), leader of the National Technical Unit (NTU) on the IQMAS Project for improving Maths and Science Education MEST said that the theme underscores the relevance of science to people worldwide who believe that the meaning of science lies in doing science itself.
He said that scientific knowledge to solve problems in nature is what is referred to as technology, adding that knowledge is developed through scientific culture and it entails a lot of searching for the unknown, mostly through well designed researching projects and investigation.
He stated that most people in the world understand the actual meaning of science of anything to present a scientific basis for that particular thing, adding that science and technology is known all over the world as a means of development in various countries like China, Korea, Japan, USA, Singapore, etc.
By Mohamed Y. Turay
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