Don tasks students on basic science, technology education

Unilorin fresh students during an orientation programme

A Professor of Science Education, Peter Okebukola, on Tuesday, identified science and technology as the bedrock of any innovation that drives the economy of a nation.

Okebukola said this in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja while reacting to the poor number of students’ participation in sciences across the country.

According to him, the interest in science subjects and career begins with learning of mathematics.

He further explained that all science subjects had components of mathematics in them while the focus should be in the interest of the students to learn the subject.

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“We have to make science exciting by giving the students practical experience and virtually every topic in Chemistry, Biology and Physics relate to everyday life.

“Most of the time some students are not interested because the teacher just gives the theory aspect of a science subject without relating it to real-life issues.

“The mathematical component of science subjects is also making students to shy away from the sciences.

“Physics, Chemistry, Biology, are all linked with Mathematics. To attract people, you have to get them to learn Mathematics.

Okebukola also blamed poor participation on the part of teachers who were also poorly trained with poor content knowledge.

The don added that the Nigeria Universities Commission (NUC) had a 60:40 Science to Arts policy ratio admission in tertiary schools but it was hardly met due to lack of interest.

Okebukola also advocated the need for successful women in the area of sciences to mentor young girls for even representation, adding that the science area was portrayed as a predominantly male environment.

He, however, called for proper science teachers training to ensure they impacted the right knowledge to their students to elicit interest.