Science, technology, engineering and mathematics are improving the activities of global people in all areas and transforming the world at an unparalleled rate.
Ranging from advancing the health, education, agriculture, transportation and communication sectors among others and allowing people to simply interact across the globe and doing businesses easily, science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields are impacting global people in numerous ways. These days, the global economy is influenced by automation, artificial intelligence and the internet more than ever before which make the role of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education fundamental.
Nowadays, the global economy is influenced more than ever before by science, technology, engineering and employing automation, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the internet to enhance competence and promote sustainable economic growth.
According to a study by the World Bank, since STEM represents a vast and crucial domain of knowledge, it should be practiced in developing nations to drive development and pull out citizens out of poverty. Thus, countries are encouraged to apply integrated STEM education through a dynamic pedagogical approach, which surpasses traditional teaching methods by intentionally weaving these four fields into a single cross-disciplinary program.
It is true that the African Union’s Agenda 2063 recognizes the strategic role STEM education can play in fast-tracking Africa’s development. This shows that Africa should be ready to capitalize on and benefit from STEM education and skills to leapfrog as a global leader in addressing mega developmental trends in emerging technologies, cyber security, climate change, green economy, and global health. Most importantly, the ability of Africa to convert its youth dividend with a projected 362 million young people between 15-24 years by 2050—into a highly skilled STEM workforce can be a game changer.
“Africans should enhance effort in revolutionizing the STEM education ecosystem urgently more than ever before to tap the opportunities, enhance competence of the workforce and increase competitiveness, “ the World Bank’s study recommends.
In fact, most African countries are working committedly to promote STEM education, inculcate science knowledge and skills among young people. Principally, because STEM is the most important way to encourage innovation and creativity, as well as problem-solving skills, and it is vital to compete globally and ensure sustainable economic growth and development, African nations are exerting energies. However, numerous challenges are hindering STEM education not to thrive at the desired level.
Among the major constraints, even though they differ from country to country, low participation and a weak pipeline in STEM fields, lack of smart classrooms, science laboratories and equipment are few.
Learning the aforesaid challenges, The Ethiopia Herald approached Ministry of Education STEM Senior Expert Dula Tolera (PhD) to share his insights on the aforesaid matter.
According to him, skilled human capital, the most decisive resource for developing countries, should opt in providing the younger generation with hands-on training along with soft skill competencies.
Ethiopia’s STEM education has been started in organized fashion by opening STEM centers and allocating resources. Consecutively, promising steps have been made though a lot remains to be done and it should be further strengthened. The Ministry is working along with pertinent stakeholders to instill STEM in the education system through providing the education at various STEM centers.
It is high time to engage in revolutionizing STEM in the education system and let many younger generations get hands-on training on hard science. There is also a need to focus on STEM education through allocating resources and offering training for teachers in the fields. This helps to ensure sustainable and inclusive economic growth in the country, because it allows enhancing competency, letting more entrepreneurs and innovators join the workforce and in the market, he underlined.
He also noted that development partners working along with the government should be well exploited because they do have skilled human resources, finance as well as technology that could help Ethiopia to advance in STEM education.
Nation’s STEM education should not only focus on addressing local workforce demands; but it should include the international too. For instance, internationally acclaimed institutions’ workforce mix is highly heterogeneous; he mentioned “NASA’s workforces. “When we assess NASA, 38 percent of its workforces are coming from India. This has happened because India has put in place STEM education in priority rather than soft skill, they have produced a skilled workforce at the standard of the international work force demand,” he added.
According to him, we are witnessing that the teaching-learning process and the classroom management in a number of schools rely on lecture-based lessons that make the students more theoretical than practical. These lead to producing unskilled human power that could not shoulder the workload and the capacity needed for the job market. This kind of approach should be corrected.
“As a populous country, population means trainable manpower that can bring about a difference in a nation’s overall growth. To tap this power, a special institute should be assigned or structured to track down brilliant students. For instance, the STEM program in the USA is headed by NASA. This confirms how the USA gave the weight to strengthening STEM and striving to bridge the gap for innovative workforce and address the gap for skilled human workforce. The Agency is responsible for hunting down competent students and letting them join STEM centers throughout the country.”
Owing to this, he recommends enhancing STEM awareness and giving due attention to it more than ever before. This could be materialized through creating opportunities for STEM discovery such as the establishment of science centers, targeted campaigns, community engagement programs, partnerships, and other STEM initiatives with local educational institutions to improve access to STEM education.
Investing in STEM education fosters long-term sustainable development by building a skilled workforce capable of driving innovation across different sectors of the economy. This, in turn, leads to economic diversification, increased productivity, and improved standards of living for the population, he remarked.
Overall, STEM education serves as a catalyst for innovation and entrepreneurship in developing nations, empowering individuals to create positive change, drive economic growth, and build a brighter future for themselves and their communities.
Dula also sees mainstreaming STEM in all universities as a promising move and an important move to produce skilled workforces, build a digital economy and expand technology in Ethiopia.
BY MENGISTEAB TESHOME
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD SATURDAY 18 MAY 2024
