GROWING APATHY AMONG SCIENCE STUDENTS
Having taken a painstaking study lately, I
acknowledged that there has been a tremendous decline in the rate of
seriousness among most science students in various level of learning on the
African continent, particularly Nigeria. Such a scenario has over the years
served as a nuisance in the field of science and technology, that if drastic
approach isn’t taken towards salvaging the lapse, it’s liable to degenerate
into an unspeakable crisis in no distant time.
It’s noteworthy that development is required
in every individual to every nation, in every aspect of human endeavour. And
for development to take place, science and tech must go hand in hand. Science
is fundamentally noted as the study of knowledge, which is made into a system,
and depends on analyzing facts. Tech is the outright application of this
scientific knowledge. In other words, tech transforms knowledge from science
into reality.
The fact is, for any successful economy
– especially in today’s quest for knowledge based economies – science and tech
are the primary requisites. If any nation relegates the two recipes to the
background, the chances of getting itself developed becomes far-fetched, thus
stands to be classified as an undeveloped nation. A nation that’s not able to
prosper on these grounds would not be able to sustain the lives in it, and
might have to depend on other nations for survival alongside other life’s
requirements.
Taking a close view of the above
exegesis, it’s therefore needless to reiterate that any country is supposed to
take sciences very seriously as if its whole life depends on it (science). It
becomes so pathetic and mind-boggling when realized that Nigeria as a nation is
taken aback regarding acquiring of science knowledge, or its implementation. The
lingering anomaly, which calls for great concern, can be observed in virtually
all existing citadels of learning across the federation regardless of level
ranging from primary, secondary, to tertiary.
This piece is mainly interested in the
level of apathy among the learners. In our primary schools, the pupils are now
invariably preoccupied with the notion that science subjects, such as
Mathematics and Basic Science, are very difficult to understand owing to the
orientation they met in the system. Such a circumstance is usually occasioned
by the mode of teaching of the class teacher. Sometimes, fear would be
inculcated into the pupils’ mindset by their teacher who would, rather than
participate in the teaching as expected, take much time to lay uncalled
emphasis on why the pupils should see science subjects as tough and different
from others. By so doing, the affected pupils would live to consider sciences
as monster, thus would prefer to pay more attention to arts.
In the secondary schools, only a few students
see subjects like Physics, Mathematics and Chemistry as friendly. Those who
detest these subjects had nurtured their mentality with the view that sciences
generally are only meant for a certain group of select individuals. Those who
mistakenly chose to be in the science department, in the long run tend to lose
interest in the field and would want to dissociate themselves from the circle.
Funnily enough, in most cases, students
would choose to be in science department when they get to the senior section
simply because some of their intimate friends or classmates had chosen to be in
that field. This aspect of influence remains one of the major attributes of
apathy noticed among various science students in most Nigerian secondary schools.
This set of learners often becomes dropouts as a result of inability to cope
with the studies.
Nowadays, virtually none pay good
attention to the teachings of Pure Mathematics let alone Additional/Further
Mathematics. And most existing science-oriented disciplines, such as
Engineering, in the tertiary institutions, basically depend on the knowledge of
Further Mathematics on their day-to-day thrive. This has caused enormous
decline in the number of persons seeking to study engineering, and other
related, courses. The few that managed to secure admission to read these
courses, perhaps due to their background, usually fumble as the journey
progresses.
The way out from this conundrum entails three
prime approaches. One, the various primary and secondary schools ought to
endeavour to engage qualified teachers that would imbibe the required mindset
and knowledge into the pupils and students, as the case may be. Guidance and
counselling that has almost gone into extinction should equally be revived in
these schools. A functional and viable counselling mechanism would enable the
learners to go for only the needful as well as what would be suitable for their
future.
Parents and guardians, on their part,
are expected to pay more attention to whatever their wards do as regards
academics. Learning begins from home, thus the needed parental support mustn’t
be overlooked. Among all, governments at all levels among other relevant
stakeholders should endeavour to provide the required facilities that would
enable the affected people to appreciate science’s teachings.
For this growing apathy to become a
thing of the past, every concerned stakeholder as mentioned above must note
that science is the only field that can enable the anticipated economic
diversification. Think about it!
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