The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics

  • 81 pupils battle for N12.5m Interswitch scholarship

    Eighty-one SS2 pupils from across the nation are in the race to win the InterswitchSPAK National Science Quiz Competition, which begins airing Saturday on satellite and national television stations.

    The pupils emerged from among 11,000 public and private secondary school pupils aged 14 to 17 that entered for the national qualifying examination in April.

    The top three winners are to get a total of N12.5 million scholarship for their tertiary education – with the overall best going home with N7.5 million scholarship that would be spread across five years.

    The TV quiz show would also feature an innovations challenge that would require participants to brainstorm to provide workable solutions to practical challenges in the education, transportation, and healthcare sectors, based on their knowledge of Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).

    The competition is a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative under the InterswitchSPAK Switch-a-Future project aimed at promoting STEM education among secondary school pupils.

    Mitchell Elegbe, Group Managing Director, Interswitch, said of the project: “The InterswitchSPAK is a huge investment by Interswitch and we are very passionate about it. With this project, we are breaking boundaries, we are going outside the box; we are equipping African youths with the capacity to solve problems. The TV Quiz show which will debut on Saturday, October 27, promises to be very interesting as the students will be expected to collaborate to provide solutions to social problems and at the same time compete for the title of ‘Best Science Student in Nigeria’. I am looking forward to it and urge Nigerians to tune in”.

    The TV Quiz Show was preceded by a Masterclass which took place on August 27, in Lagos. It was a full-day of knowledge sharing and engagement sessions where some of the most inspiring and successful men and women in the society discussed relevant topics with the students.

    The Quiz competition will be shown on DSTV’s Africa Magic Channel 154, AIT, TVC Lagos, STV Jos, NTA Kano, EBS Edo, NTA Port-Harcourt, DBS Asaba and OSRC Akure.

  • Interswitch: science, technology, others hold future for economy

    Encouraging student to embrace Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects would help bridge skills gap in the information communication technology (ICT) sector, a electronic payment and digital commerce firm, Interswitch Group, has said.

    Its Founder & GMD, Mitchell Elegbe, who spoke ahead the hosting of the first edition of the InterswitchSPAK project with a N12.5million-scholarship among other prizes, said when students are encouraged early in their life to pick interest in STEM subjects, they end up designing solutions to societal problems.

    He said the project is the firm’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative that is primarily focused on driving increased interest in the study of STEM subjects among Senior Secondary School students across the country.

    Elegbe said the session would give the students the opportunity to meet real-life models who prove that success is possible, regardless of existing challenges. It will focus on knowledge sharing, as well as motivating the students on character building and assuming leadership responsibilities in all their spheres of contact.

    He said: “The Masterclass is a real experiential window for the students, where they do not only meet successful people who are providing solutions, they are motivated and prepped by these people to begin to develop the right mind set and attitude for leadership and success.”

    He said the initiative is multifaceted-made as it is up of the TV quiz show which includes the Innovation Challenge, the MasterClass, and the InterswitchSPAK volunteers’ week, all targeted at students aged between 14 and 17 years in SS 2 or year 11, as the case maybe. InterswitchSPAK aims to encourage and guide the students on career paths that will help them achieve full optimisation of their potentials and dreams to become innovators and entrepreneurs.

    InterswitchSPAK 1.0. began with a national qualifying examination from which the top 81 students out of the over 11,000 students from various private and public secondary schools across the 36 states of the federation, including the FCT, qualified to compete in the TV quiz show.

    The TV quiz show will be preceded by a masterclass taking place on August 27, in Lagos.  The Masterclass is a full-day of knowledge sharing and engagement sessions where some of the most inspiring and successful men and women in our society will discuss relevant topics with the students.

    It will feature three 45-minute sessions where the qualified students who emerged from the qualifying examinations will be intellectually motivated by high-profile speakers led by Mr. Elegbe,. Also expected to speak at the event are CEO, Stanbic IBTC Holdings Ltd, Mr. Yinka Sanni and MD, Endeavour Nigeria, Eloho Omame.

    Sanni will lead the first session and would be speaking on “Social Innovation – The Power of Transformative Ideas, while Omame will handle the second session titled: ‘Entrepreneurship – A Tool to Creating Impact in Our Society’ and Elegbe will round off the session with the topic: ‘Emotional Intelligence and the Leadership Responsibility of Youths’.

  • ‘Nigeria lags behind in STEM’

    ‘Nigeria lags behind in STEM’

    Nigeria has fallen behind in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), which forms the basis for appraising scientific and technological development round the world, says Prof Festus Oyawale of Covenant University, Ota.

    The professor of Engineering and Manufacturing particularly regrets that she has been left behind by countries which were once considered ‘developing countries’ but were now asserting their technological superiority.

    “STEM will elevate Nigeria’s position in the global economy and give our students the skills they need to successfully compete with talents around,” Oyawale said while delivering his inaugural titled: ‘Engineering and manufacturing: A sine qua non for pertinence’ at the university last Friday.

    He said the first step towards reversing this trend, was for government to stimulate interest in science subjects by reviving moribund technical workshops in secondary schools nationwide.

    He said: ‘Currently, science, mathematics and introductory technology have been relegated into the background in our secondary schools. Workshops in secondary schools have been vandalised where they existed and where some exist, there are no trained teachers to man them. The first step is to revive all in the secondary schools to provide the ingredients for the production of the much needed engineers, technologists and technicians.”

    Another step, Oyawale argued, was for Nigeria to stop exportation of crude oil and raw materials, and equip the universities with hi-tech equipment for training undergraduates across the six geo-political zones.

    “These will provide the basis for successful incubators and start-up villages. It is very clear that without the production of machine tools, our hands are tied behind our backs,” he said.

    He said it calls to question several failed agreements between government and automobile manufacturers, saying while the former lacks the political will, the latter had no intention of developing local technology.

    More than before, Oyawale said Nigeria must look inward to develop indigenous technology.

    He said: “What stops Nigeria from producing the steel profiles and railroads cars required for our rail transportation? Even cast and other rail pads are still largely imported. Nigeria should embark heavily on the provision of tooling for mass production of auto bodies and machine tools. With the electric engines now available for imports, the nation could use the Korean model to get into the race for electric vehicles. The era of paper publishing is over. We have to put the research to work.”

    Though Oyawale sees light at the end of the tunnel; he expressed worries that patronage of local technology, waste, lack of accountability, and indiscipline.

     

  • Nigerians urged to embrace STEM

    Nigerians urged to embrace STEM

    The need to introduce pupils early in life to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education has prompted the pupils of Carol School, Agidingbi, Ikeja, Lagos to pay a visit to the Lagos office of Huawei Technologies Ltd, Lagos office.

    The pupils whose  ages were  between four to 14 were welcomed in Huawei Innovation and Experience  Center by the ICT giant’s staff.

    Speaking at the Huawei Innovation and Experience  Center , Mrs. Okorodion Juliet who led the pupils to the center said any nation that really loves her  youths must be ready to promote and embrace STEM education, which is right tools for the children.

    According to her, “STEM as a tool will not just excite the children to learn, it will also make them be eager to learn difficult things in an entertaining mood. They will be proud later in the future in any field they found themselves because the culture has been imbibed in them very early in life.

    “The importance of STEM cannot be waived asides by any nation that wants to grow, mostly in these millennium age where ICT has made may jobs easier and has also allowed income earners to earn more with less stress,”. Okorodion said.

    Welcoming the pupils, Product  Manager,  Huawei  Technology,  Mr.Oluwaseun Ologun, said that  such occasion was part of his organization’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) drive in ensuring that children were not left out of the digital race in a developing environment.

    Oluwaseun who took time to listen and answer the  pupils question said the   development of ICT culture amongst children was  crucial to the growth  and development of a nation.

    According to him, globally, the impact of ICT education in children would help their learning experiences  both at home and in schools. Not only this, imbibing the ICT culture in them will enable them grow with it and be at the same level with their counterparts worldwide. They will superior and not inferior.

    Also, the head of the Public Relations, Mr. Quanwei,  said Huawei is dedicated to popularizing information  technology and knowledge, developing ICT professionals, and increasing educational opportunities in any environment it operates.

    “We just don’t believe in making profit alone, we  strive to make our CSR visible in all our operational areas. Having these children here today is that we believe that they will grow up to become leaders of tomorrow. And promoting ICT education for them at this age will broaden their knowledge and ability to learn, putting in mind that children learn faster most times than adults” Mr. Q declared.

    The pupils were treated to  ‘magic’ moments where they learned how to make conference phone calls through television. They were paired into two; written on their faces were smiles that they could interact without being in same location.