The Minister of Education, Mrs Betty Mould-Iddrisu, has stressed the need to revamp science and technology in all its forms, especially within the education sector, to make it relevant to the country’s development needs.
This revamping exercise, she said, must necessarily cover all levels of the education system, basic, secondary and tertiary.
The minister said this at a day’s “Dissemination Seminar towards the Contextualization of Science” in Winneba on Tuesday.
The Seminar organised by the University of Education, Winneba (UEW) Centre for School and Community Science and Technology Studies (SACOST), was under the theme “Making Science (Teaching) Real”.
Science teachers from 52 Senior High Schools from the Central and Greater Accra Regions, representatives from the Association of African Universities, University of Cape Coast (UCC) and lecturers from the University of Education, Winneba attended the seminar.
Mrs Mould-Iddrisu said the “way pupils/students were introduced to science in the 60’s and 70’s was not the best and no longer appeals to the present generation”.
Our school science should equip students to be creative and innovation and to be able to apply their knowledge to the development of the nation, she stressed.
“It stands to reason that the review and or revision of curricula and syllabi have to be conducted on regular basis in order to keep abreast with global trends”.
The minister gave the assurance that the government was the foremost stakeholder in the search for a better educational system that will drive the better Ghana development agenda of President John Evans Atta Mills.
She said that the ministry will carefully study the document that the seminar comes out with at the end of the discussion and deliberation on the report of the contextualization project and make the necessary recommendation for their implementation to improve the teaching and learning of science.
Prof. Jophus Anamuah-Mensah, Director of SACOST, said SACOST sought to promote the awareness of endogenous knowledge and its integration into the global knowledge of science and technology.
According to him this can only be achieved if there is a new policy direction for, and commitment to, science education in the country.
Prof. Anamuah-Mensah said the intent of the seminar was to share the report of the Teaching and Learning Innovation Fund (TALIF) project on the “Contextualization of the Teaching of Science and Technology” with policy makers, science teachers, curriculum developers and the University of Education.