Nigeria’s slow technological development may not be unconnected with its cultural history of not promoting scientific exploits compared to administrative, arts and commercial areas of endeavour, Sidmach Technologies ChiefExecutive Officer (CEO), Mr Adebayo Arogundade has said.
Speaking on “Integrating technology in learning,” at the graduation of the Lagos City Polytechnic in Lagos, Arogundade attributed the lack of practical appreciation of science teaching to the country’s cultural background.
“Maybe our background as a nation, not originally featured as champion of empirical knowledge based on science, has affected our collective disposition toward science and technology. We are a nation of administrators, diplomats and artists. This has tailored our academic curricula to a liberal education than vocational.
“Arts and social knowledge is more strongly projected than science and technology. Sponsorship of songs, dance, acting competitions abounds to the pitiable non-emphasis of science. Most of the young primary pupils and secondary students grow appetite for instant gratification. They make foray into entertainment to afford the gratification instead of science and technology that can guarantee broad based, long term sustainability of the nation’s economy and improved future.”
Arogundade said the situation was worsened by non-aggression in the pursuit of science by government; and infrastructural deficiency.
He said government’s lack of aggression was the result of poor policy drive. He stressed that the expansion of the science base of the nation should not be a one-off agenda.
“It should be yearly reviewed to encourage policies that will continue to reinforce what is already on ground. In Nigeria, we have Ministry of Science and Technology but the aggression to monitor science endeavor to provide scientific material, catalyse competition among pupils and students, give international exposure, etc., are lacking.”
To be named among the best in the world, the technology expert said, Nigeria must embrace technological education.
“Nigeria needs further entrenchment of technology in educational development. Science and Technology have revolutionised learning around the world. Telecommunication has brought the world together such that distance is no longer a barrier to quality and depth of learning,” he said
“What we are experiencing now in the application of technology to learning is so meagre in our clime compared to the expected preponderance of it as seen in the way technology has caused explosion in learning in the other continents of the earth. Despite the awareness, integrating this into our curricular is not as expected,” he said.
Earlier, Lagos City Polytechnic Governing Council Chairman, Babatunde Odufuwa, underscored the need to embrace technology in teaching and learning to boost Nigeria’s economy .
“The capacity for countries to adopt, disseminate, and maximise rapid technological advances is dependent on adequate systems of tertiary education.
“There are many ways of enhancing and improving the quality, value and standard of tertiary education in Nigeria. In this context, there are parameters through which various studies and professions conform to the needs of the society and business most of which emanate from research and technological development in the world.
“Discoveries and studies are put together in order to achieve a set of world knowledge acquisition which cuts across languages and national boundaries but are universally accepted by all users in the engineering, medicine, information technology (IT) and other forms of improvement in the educational standard of the world,” he said.