Stakeholders brainstorm improvement strategies for STEM education

Stakeholders in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), an area of education, are meeting in Accra to deliberate on measures critical for the integration of STEM into mainstream education. 

Organised by the Ministry of Education in collaboration with the Association for Development of Education in Africa (ADEA), the meeting which began yesterday has brought together educational institutions from primary to tertiary level, industry partners, non-governmental organisations(NGOs), curriculum experts and education researchers to collaborate to shape policies that enhance STEM education and align it with future workforce needs.

Quality STEM

Deliberations will be based on studies into STEM education on the continent by the ADEA which have revealed gaps in the provision of quality STEM education, namely; inadequate teaching and learning resources and facilities, insufficient number of teachers of STEM subjects, limited technology integration, gender and lack of innovative instructional approaches that foster students' interest, engagement and connections to real life.

Also, the report on the study indicates that even though play-based learning has gained traction globally as an effective learner-centred pedagogy for early years of learning, its integration into basic education contexts remains limited in Africa.

The forum, therefore, seeks to harmonise the understanding of STEM education and play-based pedagogies by creating awareness of the status of STEM education at the basic learning level in Africa, fostering policy dialogue, sharing experiences and discussing challenges, opportunities and strategies for implementing the integration of STEM education and play-based pedagogies in African education.

Government efforts

Addressing the participants, the Minister of Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, emphasised the government’s commitment to STEM and technical and vocational education and training (TVET), highlighting its importance for Ghana’s youth to thrive in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

He mentioned several STEM and TVET centres the government had established and how the government had successfully integrated the two fields at the basic level of education, adding that it had also established a new STEM curriculum for biomedical science, engineering science, aviation and aerospace, manufacturing, and computer science to be rolled out this year.

“African children are ready to learn. If we are underachieving, it’s not their fault, it’s ours. Until we accept that it’s the fault of the adults that Africa is at the bottom of the education ladder, we’ll never be able to change education in Africa. “It’s our fault when there are no resources. They are so good, so eager and so ready to learn and we need to do better,” Dr Adutwum said. 

Development

The Inter-country Quality Node on Mathematics and Science Education at the ADEA, Dr Mary Sichangi, said a strong foundation in STEM education would enable a country to rapidly achieve socio-economic development, address contemporary challenges and meaningfully participate in the global economy.

“Nonetheless, STEM education in African countries faces challenges such as limited student interest, gender gaps, insufficiently qualified educators, misalignment with industry needs, and inadequate policy prioritization which undermine effective learning,” she lamented.

She, however, highlighted that the same studies had also discovered that there was a growing interest on the continent in the integration of STEM subjects at the basic learning level and gaps in the use of innovative learner-centred pedagogies such as play-based approaches, and called on the appropriate authorities to implement these to help remove the myths and make STEM impactful right from the start.