Science syllabi overloaded - Dr Ossei-Anto

Accra, Sept. 4, GNA - Dr Theophilus Aquinas Ossei-Anto, a Visiting Senior Lecturer at the University of Cape Coast, on Thursday called for periodic refresher courses for all science teachers to make themselves abreast with modern knowledge and trends in the science profession. He said the science syllabi were overloaded with too much theory and too many hurdles that the common and un-motivated science teachers could not surmount, adding that such interventions would go along way to enhance effective teaching and learning.

"Not every science teacher or science administrator can go back to the classroom, but any science teacher or administrator can be upgraded on the job, if it should not cost him/her a single Ghana pesewa. Science teachers can only perform if, and only if, they are given the opportunity to improve/sharpen their skills", he added.

Dr Ossei-Anto who is also an Associate Professor of Pedagogical Sciences, Bahir Dar University, Ethiopia, was delivering a paper on "The Oil Industry: Implications for the Management of Science and Technology Education in Ghana" at an on-going conferen ce for the Ghana Association of Science Teachers (GAST) in Takoradi.

He noted that many of the science teachers currently in the system left the universities long ago and that many things had changed since then, including the electronics they learnt in the final years. He said the inadequate number of competently trained science teachers being squeezed through our educational institutions to manage science and technology at the pre-tertiary levels also needed to be addressed, and appealed to the Ghana Education Service and the Ministry of Education and Science to put their heads together to solve that problem.

He said GAST has a pivotal role to play in the management of Science and Technology Education in Ghana, both before and during the era of Ghana's oil boom.

"GAST is currently the only professional and pressure group that can speak and advocate for green pastures for professionally-trained science teachers to graze. So it cannot afford to fail its members. "The present choking situations that its members are forced to operate in are leading to the shortage of science teachers in Ghanaian educational institutions. Lets take a look at a few and see how GAST can put pressure on the powers to see the dead-traps ahead," he added. Dr Ossei-Anto said it was time to draw concrete plans to revamp the educational system and lay pragmatic emphasis on science, vocational and technology education; ensure the full integration of ICTs into the science classroom; and employ advances in electronics as the cutting edge of technology.

He said with the anticipated oil boom, the time was ripe for Ghana to rapidly advance in the area of software development, prepare teachers in the sciences and technology to incorporate the management and use of the virtual classroom situations in daily lesson deliveries.

Also, the distance education endeavours should be supported by the provision of meaningful infrastructures and healthy assessment procedures that logistically appeal to the learners, no matter the remotest corner of Ghana where they might find themselves.

He said facilities and opportunities should be created for science teachers and science educators to acquaint them with the modern trends of assessment of science instruction, and by laying more emphasis on the basic principle that since science is practical, passing the practical component of every science and science-related course is a "sine qua non".

"The way we manage research work in the sciences at the tertiary level of our educational system ought to be changed from being mere cosmetic academic exercises to stimulating-to-industry exercises. The book-longish attitude should pave way for visualizing prototypes of scientific and technological breakthroughs," he added.

Dr Ossei-Anto, therefore, urged the organizers of the conference to direct future GAST workshops and conferences towards addressing the classroom difficulties confronting science teachers. "GAST must lead the crusade of speaking for Ghanaian science teachers and administrators," he declared. 04 Sept. 09