Constraints to the development of science and technology education

The constraints to effective science and technology teaching and learning relate to the optimization of five interacting factors that underpin effective learning.  These are the science and technology teacher (his/her qualification), content, methods of delivery, resources and the community. The interaction of these factors with the learners (students) results in students’ performance. Inadequate provision of any of the five factors could result in inappropriate performance by the learner.
Science and technology education should as a matter of course respond to the needs of the society in which it is practiced. The inability of science and technology to respond positively to the development needs of the nation could be attributed to the following:


•    Inadequate funding of the development of science and technology and science and technology education in the country; it is estimated that resource allocation to science and technology constitute only 0.3-0.5 per cent of GDP ( ) which is far below the decision taken by the signatories to the Lagos Plan of Action to spend at least 1.0% of GDP. This has resulted in poor infrastructure including laboratory and workshop facilities for the teaching of science and technology in the schools.
•    Inadequate numbers of well prepared and highly motivated science and technology teachers. At the moment almost 50% of teachers at the senior secondary level are not professionally trained. Most basic education teachers are ill-prepared to teach science and technology. Science teachers are poorly motivated and resourced resulting in appreciable numbers leaving the teaching profession for other occupations. Information available indicates that a sizeable percentage of students enrolled in Masters in Business Administration programmes at the University of Ghana are science and technology graduates (Entsua-Mensah, 2004).
•    Perceived irrelevance of the content and pedagogy of science and technology education. Teaching methods do not encourage critical thinking and problem solving; content is also not related to issues in the environment of the learner; science is therefore learnt as an unexciting collection of abstract facts.
•    Poor performance of students at the pre-university level of education.
Although there is no national yardstick for assessing the performance of pupils in environmental studies and integrated science at the primary level, observations indicate that many schools do not teach science.  At the JSS level, about 60% passed the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) in science and mathematics, while more than 40% failed.
The performance of students in the senior secondary school certificate examination shows some improvement in performance in core mathematics and a fluctuating performance in core science. However, there is till a large percentage of students (about 50%) who failed the subject.



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