The 26th Career Counselling, Industry Awareness and Youth Empowerment Workshop organised by Lonadek Consultants provided a forum for discussion on policies and regulations that will promote Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) growth in Nigeria going forward. The ideas generated should be translated into concrete action, EWUZIE KELECHI reports.
When the organisers of the Career Counselling, Industry Awareness and Youth Empowerment Workshop chose ‘Transforming Nigeria through STEM Education as the theme for this year’s event, it was not co-incidental. It was a calculated move to drive home the critical role of managers of the education sector in creating an investment environment as a necessary precondition for growth of STEM education.
This is especially important because the current state of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education in Nigeria is far from encouraging. Traditional education system in Nigeria is failing, with STEM education being the worst hit. Students are largely uninspired to pursue their passion in STEM related fields, thereby leaving them unprepared for the opportunities and challenges of the 21st century world.
And so, it was with this mindset that industry players, policymakers, regulators, and key education stakeholders converged at Yaba College of Technology Lagos recently to interact, deliberate and chart the way forward for promoting Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education in Nigeria.
This mindset also reflected in the choice of topics for the various presentations at the workshop, which included ‘Importance of STEM education in Nigeria’, ‘Youth in Leadership and Entrepreneurship in STEM’, among others.
Judging by reports which indicate that Nigerian students rank low among students of both the industrialised and developing countries when it comes to achievement in Science Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects in test scores and other assessments of academic achievement in both foundation and external examinations, the workshop indeed came in the nick of time as speaker after speaker at the event, in recognition of this worrying trend at the moment, outlined the role government and the different stakeholders can play in shoring up investment to boost the country’s STEM education.
It is no gain saying the fact that an average Nigerian youth engages in social vices that adversely affect their educational career, self-development, realisation of their innate talents and socio-economic transformation of the country. The remote causes are not farfetched.
Extreme poverty, poor standard of education and education facilities, peer pressure and societal influence, lack of educational guidance and career counselling at the early stage and complacency on the part of the youths are the contending factors impeding our collective national growth and development.
But for Nigeria to attract and sustain the needed investments in STEM education, the formulation of an education policy that is focused on STEM; less emphasis on certificates with more emphasis on skills and competence; collaboration between educational institutions and industries to determine the knowledge and skills students are expected to possess.
We are living in extraordinary times, when technology is changing the way we do things. New breakthroughs in information technology, biotechnology, nanotechnology are changing, not only how the world is connected, but also how things are done; how we do business with each other in an ever shrinking global marketplace.
Many professions are fast disappearing, and many new ones are springing up. Social media devices have practically turned the world to a global village. The impact of these is huge, and only those nations which recognise the possibilities and opportunities in the horizon will be in a position to dominate the world of the 21st century according to Olubunmi Obembe, who was the special guest at the workshop.
He therefore called managers of the economy to save the future of the young and enterprising youths adding that a look at the achievement of Nigerians in the diaspora, alone reiterate the enormous potential residing in Nigerians.
“We must make the conditions right here at home. We must invest more in education. We must invest heavily in STEM, as a tool for national development,” he said.
He observes that infrastructure is a major deficit in Nigeria. It is critical in science. We have people who schooled here and when they go out, they excel. Teachers need to be motivated so that they will be able to engage and guide students in STEM.”
Ibilola Amao, convener of the workshop while tasking Federal Government to encourage the promotion of STEM role models, mentors and coaches, empower STEM teachers and lecturers, promote science projects, community development initiatives, as well as research and development said “The Vision 2020 Youth Empowerment and Restoration Initiative largely supports and underpins the Vision 2020 goals of Nigeria to become one of the 20 largest economies in the world, a significant player in the global economic and political arena through youth empowerment and industry awareness ,leadership ,entrepreneurial and vocational skills development”
Amao stressed that by the year 2020, the project would have successfully impacted one hundred thousand youths across Nigeria with relevant skills, industry and professional awareness training.
“In the long run, more youths would have been prepared to take up challenges in different spheres of our national development and add tremendous value to the socio-economic transformation drive of the nation,” she said.
She further said that having identified the issues that underscored the slow progress of youth development in STEM and national development by extension, the project model offers a life line to the underprivileged youths through counselling and Industry Awareness Workshops in major cities across Nigeria.
In his presentation at the workshop, Dayo Ilori, one of the speakers said entrepreneurship training in schools should be beyond acquisition of skills for small business.
Ilori speaking on the topic: “Youth Leadership and Entrepreneurship in STEM”, said with much emphasis placed on entrepreneurship education by schools, there are still loopholes which have limited pupils mindset from the core relevance of entrepreneurship.
According to him “A lot of schools have introduced entrepreneurship education but what exactly is being taught in the curriculum of entrepreneurship? What I see a lot of schools teach in that area is more like skills acquisition.
“Entrepreneurship is beyond having a small business. This is what schools do, preparing students to own small business which eventually are not sustainable. Real entrepreneurship should be start-ups which can be scalable.
Discussants during the panel session emphasised the need for government at all levels to give priority attention to the teaching of STEM to make our students globally competitive and the nation technologically relevant.
They also canvassed greater attention on teachers to enhance the development of the sector.
According to them, “Teachers must be empowered with the needed tools to be able to effectively train students on STEM education. Adding that investment in students without a measure of same in teachers would only amount to a waste of resources.
Stakeholders at the workshop opine that no matter federal government huge investments in students, without a corresponding gesture to teachers, the nation cannot go far. Teachers are the bedrock of the society; they must be well trained to embrace technological education because you cannot give what you don’t have.
With the quality of the discussions and deliberations and the valuable knowledge and information shared, there is no doubt that the 26th Career Counselling, Industry Awareness and Youth Empowerment Workshop was indeed plentiful harvest for all the participants as well States and federal government.
As the key stakeholders all agreed, for the Nigeria to fully reap the benefits of the ideas generated and the knowledge shared during the course of the eight hours workshop, it would need to be translated into concrete action by all concerned, especially government and its policymakers. This is the only way to achieve the desired vision of the project which is passionate about the education and empowerment of youth in the country and identifying and developing those interested in learning global skills for success in STEM industries.
