Nigerian businesses needs STEM to make the economic pie bigger

Adams Smith, father of modern economics in his 1776 classic, ‘The Wealth of Nations’ argued that the prosperity of any nation is a function of the dexterity of its workmen and invention of a great number of machines which makes it possible for one man to do the work of many.

Today, science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education provides the kind of formation needed to groom dexterous knowledge economy workers, who would create machines needed to serve the many. STEM is problem based, hands on learning for students and brings real life implication and application to the classroom.

It allows for the development of 21^st century skills required for the current and future workplace. Development of these skills set from early childhood lays the foundation for the creativity, innovation and future economic benefits for a nation and its citizens.

To achieve this, a new set of skills is needed, which include learning skills such as  critical thinking, creative thinking, communication, collaboration; literacy skills such as information literacy, media literacy, technology literacy and life skills: flexibility, initiative, social skills, productivity and leadership.

According to a World Economic Forum Report, “Education and work in Sub-Saharan Africa will determine the livelihoods of nearly a billion people in the region and drive growth and development for generations to come”.

The Problem

The mismatch between the output of our educational system i.e. the quality of our graduates, and the skills required for the current and future workplace is more glaring than ever. There has been a decline in the quality of our educational system due to outdated curricula, a lack of investment in education and inadequate educational planning and as such, we have a largely underdeveloped workforce and economy.

With 70 percent of our population under the age of 30, Nigeria finds itself with a young, educated but largely “unskilled” labour market with “employment ready” skills such as creativity, critical thinking and problem solving largely absent.

These 21^st century skills set rank high with employers seeking innovative minds in this knowledge based, technology driven economy and majority of our graduates have fallen behind the rest of the world. Nigeria ranks 2.8/7.0 in the quality of education system and 49 percent in the human capital index, which measures the extent to which countries and economies optimise their human capital through education and skills development, compared to a regional average of 55 percent and global average of 65 percent.

One cannot ignore the fall out of the Fourth Industrial Revolution which is upon us with digitalization and tech advancement changing traditional jobs and skills set demand for high level skills.

This certainly creates a problem in the talent pool as less than 6 percent of our workforce are employed in high skilled jobs and only 15 percent of our working age population have tertiary education, 42 percent have secondary education and 18 percent have primary school education and 25 percent with no formal qualifications – this means majority of our population only have access to low skill, low paying jobs ensuring a lifetime in the poverty cycle.

A Solution

There are a number of levers for creating stronger education systems of which ensuring the “future-readiness” of curricula especially through a focus on STEM fields is one.

STEM Education brings hands on; minds on project based interactive approach both into the class room and through out of class enrichment programmes. Outcomes of STEM based programs include: Actively engages students in practical application of knowledge, reinforces the concept of ‘learning by dong”, develops multidisciplinary skills, brings real life environment into the classroom, encouraging practical application of theory being learned, skills learned are transferable to non-STEM related careers

 Key findings from the WEF report suggest that in order to build a pipeline of future ready skills, our educators need to design future-ready curricula that encourage critical thinking, creativity and emotional intelligence as opposed to rote learning, as well as accelerate acquisition of digital and STEM skills to match the way people will work and collaborate in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

(Written by Jadesola Adedeji is the CEO of STEM METS Resources Ltd, a company that provides 21^st skills training to children ages 3-16 using a suite of world class, award winning STEM enrichment programmes including Bricks4kidz and The Little Engineer. She can be reached at  [email protected])