Cape Coast Sept. 2 GNA - The first 'UNESCO Africa Regional workshop on training of physics training of physics trainers at the university level opened at the University of Cape Coast (UCC) on Tuesday.
The workshop, which is being organised under the joint collaboration On UNESCO, the UCC's Department of Physics and the Society of African Physicians and Mathematicians (SAPAM), is aimed at new approach to the teaching of the subject. It is being attended by more than 40 participants from Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania, Liberia, Botswana, the Sudan and Tunisia, with resource persons from the United States and the Philippines.
In an address, Professor Minella Alarcon, specialist in mathematics and physics at the UNESCO headquarters, said it was the aim of her organisation to promote physics education in developing countries, hence the sponsorship of such workshops.
The Pro- Vice-Chancellor of the UCC, Prof. Kobina Yankson who opened the five-day workshop, called on the participants to come out with interventions and methods to help address problems facing the teaching and learning of physics in African universities. Prof. Yankson observed that in spite of the importance of physics and for that matter, science and technology, to economic development, many African countries, lacked the needed number of qualified science instructors for their development.
He said, although African universities were trying to solve this problem, the task ahead is still enormous, and expressed happiness that the workshop had been organised.
He briefed the participants about efforts being made by the UCC to enhance the study of science and technology in its quest to meet the growing developmental needs of the nation, with the introduction of programmes like B.Sc Actuarial science, and industrial chemistry. Prof. Francis Allotey, Director of the Institute of Mathematical Sciences (IMS),also echoed calls on African scientists to use what he described as both developmental and survival science, to enhance the development of their countries.
The Head of the Physics Department, Prof. Samuel Mensah, said a similar workshop held in the Philippines, was yielding fruitful results and urged participants to take the workshop seriously to help achieve the desired objective .
Prof. Victor Gadzekpo, Dean of Faculty of Science, UCC, who presided said there could be no technological advancement without physics, and hoped that by the end of the workshop, participants would have come out with suggestions that would help enhance the teaching and learning of the subject, to stem "fears" about its study.
This, according to him, is imperative, as many students, especially girls, shied away from the subject, at both the secondary and tertiary levels. 2 Sept. 03
