Increase funding of science education, administrator tells government

                           

There is an urgent need for government to consciously improve funding of science and technology education all over the country so as to facilitate economic development, the administrator Grace Schools, Mrs Tokunbo Edun has said.

She said this while commending the children of Grace Primary School for winning the third place prize at this year’s Commonwealth Science Class competition, organised by the British Council in Nigeria.

Edun noted that presently, many public primary and secondary schools in the country do not have well equipped laboratories and learning facilities, a situation which makes learning of science subjects cumbersome for the pupils.

The administrator added that in developed nations, special emphasis are placed on science and technology education at the early stages of learning and urged government to “encourage our children to do better in these subjects by putting in place well equipped laboratories and improve funding of science education generally.”

She said, “Pupils of Grace Children School won the third prize in the competition because they were trained in a conducive learning environment where they have quality science equipment and information technology facilities even at the primary school level.”

On the significance of the commonwealth science class competition, Edun explained that it is important because it exposes the children yearly to the use of internet for collaborative work with their peers in other schools within the region.

Head of School, Dr. Nike Akindayo, said that 56 schools across the Commonwealth came together and carried out joint investigative science projects based on the following themes: “Renewable Energy, Global Food Security, Emerging Infectious Diseases and Climate Change and Rising Sea Levels”.

“The children gathered information through their visit to health centres and shared ideas online before jointly coming up with their project. They won the prize because according to the judges, ‘the project titled Sustaining steppers based on the emerging infectious diseases,’ showed that the team worked closely with one another and with their mentor and shared ideas and best practice.