In recent years, individuals in both academia and business have tried to draw our attention to the very apparent skills gap in Nigeria’s Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields.
The poor state of Nigeria’s infrastructure has even been attributed to this skills gap, which many have concluded is as a result of a mostly outdated curriculum and an overall poor education system.
The curriculum determines the quality of a student’s experience throughout the education process and remains the key driver for any education system.
A nation’s adopted curriculum can facilitate or hamper its growth, determining its population’s approach to learning and its assessment of individual or communal development issues.
Because development is multi- faceted and should not lean only to one side, in an attempt to ad- dress an identified problem, science and creative arts must be effectively blended into all learning experiences. We cannot depend on a science-led curriculum to develop or we may lose the soul.
Neither can we leave the creatives to drive growth, or we may never get there. We must adopt a blended approach to educational development by infusing arts into our sciences and overall learning.
Instead of STEM, we must consider STEAM – Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics how both seemingly different, but identical concepts, can be merged for learning.
Where we have emphasised learning to pass examinations, which involves passive rote memorization, we must adopt more active and artful approaches that take into consideration the nuances of our culture. For example, most Nigerian pupils learn and sit for examinations in a language that is not their mother tongue.
As a result, learning by rote repetition without full comprehension or attention seems effective. However, this approach becomes pupils’ long-term learning habits and, eventually, their attitude to life,
as they develop an inability to question status quo or innovate. Where-as, with active learning through the arts, children can engage deeply with the world around them and learn new perspectives.
Research has found that, by incorporating arts into students’ learning experiences, we can improve social outcomes and encourage behavioural change.
These studies discovered that increased involvement in arts resulted in better school engagement, less disciplinary infractions, increased compassion for others and more ambition to go further to tertiary education.
These outcomes, when translated into the broader society, can make a differ- ence for Nigeria.
The Nigerian government acknowledges the importance of the arts in today’s curriculum. In April 2019, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo emphatically highlighted the importance of a blended approach to curriculum development.
He said there was a need to “…devise an economic plan that prioritized developing a new educational curriculum that emphasizes Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths… a nationwide curriculum that incorporates 21st century STEAM thinking: coding, design skills, digital arts, robotics, machine learning… cover[ing] primary to secondary education with the skills to thrive.’’
However, we must not depend solely on the government’s efforts if we are to thrive as a community.
Everyone – parents, teachers, academia, private businesses and the public sector – must work together to make this a reality for our children’s success.
As the Duke of Wessex said, during a recent visit to Nigeria, “Creativity is at the very heart of a successful, prosperous and happy community. To be successful as a lawyer, scientist, politician, one must be creative. You need to have had those skills embedded in your learning journey.”
We can see from Leonardo da Vinci to Olafur EliasSon and David Adjaye that science and creativity are inseparable.
This belief is embedded within the Five Cowries Arts Education Initiative and has influenced our approach.
From the “My Story of Water ‘’ project to the “My Story of Energy” programme, Five Cowries strives to improve children’s learn- ing outcomes through the arts. As part of our projects, teachers and pupils engage in a variety of exchanges and experiments that highlight the importance of water, impact of climate change, what energy is and how much energy we need as individuals daily.
Children can sprint out of class into the mid- day sun, with small windmills in hand, to experiment.
This approach has begun to yield a positive impact on the children’s education, especially in under-served schools. They are more willing to engage in class and, through the arts, are learning to love and understand concepts in science.
As we all strive for more students to participate in the sciences, which are critical for industrial development, we must also work to ensure that society’s heart is not lost. Schools play a critical role in the development of future leaders and populations. As a result, within the school system, children must learn empathy and build the creative stamina required for innovation.
If not, we would continue to struggle to adopt approaches that seem relevant, but do not necessarily meet our sustainable development needs as a country.
By 2030, the world will be measuring its achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Many, who are children now, will be the adults and key drivers for positive outcomes. It is important for them to understand, now, such concepts as global warming, climate change, carbon footprint, extinction, ecosystem and the blue planet.
However, achieving this may require that we take a less scientific route and a more creative approach, so that in the next ten years, as the world discusses affordable and clean energy, as well as climate ac- tion, our children will not be left out. As Andrew Nevin, Chief Economist of PWC Nigeria, said, “it is important that we start to track progress by Sustainable Development Goals, not by GDP…”
