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Campaigning for Africa’s Research and Development

Commentary/Ghana/Africa

It is encouraging to hear these days the constant talks about research and development (R&D) in Ghana’s/Africa’s progress. Propositions of setting up high-level research and training institutes in crucial fields such as green technology, crop improvement, tropical medicine, deforestation, water supply and desertification are becoming daily issues not only in Ghana but in one part of Africa or another.

At issue aren’t the arguments that part of African states’ Gross Domestic Product (GDP) be given to R&D but also how the mass media should appropriately communicate the R&D results to Ghanaians/Africans. You watch CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta or read Time magazine’s Jeffrey Kluger and you get the message. Eugene H. Amonoo-Neizer, chair of Ghana’s Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), says Accra should set aside a percentage of its GDP for R&D. The Ghana mass media is yet to communicate to Ghanaians and Africans how the CSIR’s intercession in the shea butter industry has enhanced the industry so good that it is now growing faster and may beat Ghana’s ancient major cash crop cocoa.

The initial point is how African governments will think indisputably about R&Ds in their development processes, finance them and appropriate the results for development. African governments need not be told about R&D, the elites know the benefits all too well. In 2005, African Ministers of Science and Technology approved the ambitious Consolidated Plan of Action for Africa’s Science and Technology (CPA, 2008-2013) to beef up the wobbly African science and technology capacity.

Amonoo-Neizer is merely reminding African governments that it is an African Union’s protocol they signed which mandated them to set aside one per cent of their GDP to R&D. Rather, most African governments are concerned with excessive spending on defence. As Africa’s democracy deepens, critical questions are being asked openly about development indicators, most of which qualities are better shaped by R&D. Why are Africans’ life expectancies so low and so many people dying in their 50s? Why are infant mortalities so bad? Why do people think death is caused by witchcraft? Despite abundant water, why are Africans thirsty?

Despite these, the small R&D outcomes aren’t communicated to Africans. Though Ghanaians are one of the leading producers of cocoa, it was only recently that they got to know about the health benefits of cocoa. The Western world, where R&D is high and backed by superb health communications networks such as United States’ produced The Doctors and Dr. Oz, had known about cocoa’s health benefits years before Ghanaians, and they consume cocoa (and use it for other products) more than Ghanaians.

Olugbemiro Jegede, secretary general of the Association of African Universities, in Accra, grumble about the dearth of communications between researchers and the mass media to Africans. “Africa can only develop and tell the world about its research capacity if the media put out put relevant information … The gap between the public and research continues to widen because journalists are not bridging that gap. Africa needs to transform to ensure that whatever we are spending on research translates into results.”

In the absence of poor R&D and inadequate communications, certain cultural inhibitions that need scientific interpretations have been entangling Africans’ advancement continue to grow, and entrapping the supposedly highly educated. In the year 2011, backed by solid scientific research, Ghanaians/Africans should have less to do with issues of witchcraft, false prophets, demons and evil spirits. In 2011, it is still the irrational ancient way, and more so.

Olugbemiro Jegede and Eugene Amonoo-Neizer reveal Africans attempt to raise their R&D profiles regardless of challenges such as lack of funding. UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) acknowledges Africans’ new interest in R&D. “A growing number of African countries have realized that, without investment in science and technology, the continent will remain on the sidelines of the global economy and will find it difficult to bring an end to extreme poverty.”

UNESCO sees Africa’s R&D hopeful signs from the fact that recently several African countries such as South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria and Burkina Faso have enacted laws supporting biotechnology and bioscience researches. “In 2008, 14 countries (Benin, Botswana, Burundi, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Madagascar, Malawi, Morocco, Senegal, Swaziland, Togo, Zimbabwe and Zambia) called on UNESCO to help review their science policy. And, since 2005, six new science academies have been set up in Mozambique, Sudan, Mauritius, Morocco, Tanzania and Zimbabwe, compared to just nine in the entire period from 1902 to 2004,” UNESCO reports.

As Eugene Amonoo-Neizer said, UNESCO has the same opinion that the development of Africa’s science and technology sector faces a number of challenges, starting with budgetary constraints. “Research and development (R&D) attracts considerably less public investment in sub-Saharan Africa than defence, education or health. The proportion of GDP devoted to R&D averages about 0.3% on the continent, seven times less than that spent by industrialized countries on this sector.”

But Eugene Amonoo-Neizer should have used his forum at the Germany-funded Savannah Agricultural Research Institute, in Ghana’s Northern Region, to move beyond African governments’ low funding of R&D. UNESCO will do that for Eugene Amonoo-Neize: “Brain drain, fostered by the absence of measures to promote research and innovation, the gaps in legislation to protect intellectual property and the low wages earned by scientists, constitutes a major concern. In 2009, at least a third of African scientists or those with engineering degrees were living and working in developed countries. The absence of measures to encourage innovation, gaps in the legislation regarding intellectual property rights and low salaries paid to researchers have all contributed to the brain drain.”

In the efforts to resolve these barriers, the battle for the soul of Africa’s research and development will be waged by “rendering science more attractive to pupils in secondary schools and to students.” And yes, a good dose of international scientific cooperation to keep the emerging African scientific soul warm.

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Global Economic ‘Paradigm Shift’: A Lesson to ‘Developing’ Nations.

The United States faced a debt-ceiling crisis in July 2011 which resulted in a downgrade of its credit rating by rating agencies such as Standard and Poor’s, Fitch among others. In a similar vein, the Eurozone is presently battling unsolved debt woes, deepening fall in its manufacturing sectors and a decline in economic confidence. This indicates that the Euro bloc is on the brink of recession. World leaders including those outside the Eurozone now recognize the economic threat facing the European economic bloc.

Conversely, developing economies according to reports from rating agencies appears to be growing at a faster rate with an average annual Gross Domestic Product(G.D.P) of 5.2%- higher than global average of 4.2%. These seems to be more immune to the global ‘shock’ as was with the global recession of 2008-2009, suggesting that these developing countries are fast moving from ‘under-developed’ status to ‘developing’ and will sooner than projected meet the status of ‘developed’ economies.

From the foregoing, its imperative to state that the ‘mighty’ are falling, while the less developed countries are doing much better than the developed countries they have traditionally looked up to. No doubt, a Global economic ‘Paradigm Shift’ is unfolding. It is only hoped that this progress is sustained especially in developing economies of Africa such as Botswana, South-Africa, Tunisia, Morocco, Ghana, Nigeria and not marred by political idiosyncrasies.

This is not coming as a surprise as nations formerly known as ‘under-developed’ economies are today out of  concerted efforts of progressive leaders achieved much in both human and infrastructural development in a spectrum of time. Countries such as China, Brazil, India, Korea just to mention but few have attained significant development in this wise. In my view, these nations recognized the need to ‘Localize the global’ for there respective developments. Gone were the days and years when knowledge in all spheres of life especially in science and technology was the exclusive prerogative ‘right’ of a ‘class’. Realities associated with INFORMATION AGE today proves otherwise, as such knowledge have become accessible to the global community. Countries like China have invested consistently in infrastructural development, and today the second largest economy. Knowledge in medicine has also enhanced India’s economic development. Others have invested in tourism, education, and agriculture.

The economic challenges besetting the Eurozone as highlighted above  is a pointer to other blocs such as the Asian Tigers, African Union never to be ‘lackadaisical’ on economic affairs. That whatever goes round, actually do come around. Hence, the need for policy makers and other stakeholders concerned to come to terms with this reality. Blocs must strengthen ties, regional bodies must consolidate efforts, while relevant institutions within the polity should unite for the common objective of fostering economic growth and development amidst an ‘unpredictable’ global front. Especially in developing countries of Africa such as Nigeria, need to diversify the economy cannot be over-emphasized. Mechanized agricultural system should be intensified. Tourism has equally been identified as another major source of income generation which should be promoted by the government and relevant institutions. If only corruption and its associated ills are curtailed, while industriousness, discipline and service to humanity are adopted, Africa might just be towing the path to economic liberation and development.

Going forward, rule of law must be upheld as core to the attainment of set goals. African leaders should STOP the continuous enslavement of her people through various pacts and treaties usually designed to favor one party against the other. The continent is presently in a ‘mess’ of accumulated loans deficit inherited from successive governments, with the resultant effect of retarding economic growth of African states. Governments should henceforth concentrate effort on settling this economic ‘menace’. Lesson of developing African economies locally should be adopted by African leaders. It is our collective responsibility to take the African continent to its rightful position amongst the Comity of Nations.

If you like this article, I’d recommend my book “If I Was Famous, I’d Have a Lot to Say”

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Development of Science and Technology in Ghana/Africa – part 4

This article looks at several other methods the government of Ghana (and that of other African countries) can explore to quicken the pace of Science and Technology (S&T) development in their respective countries. For a systematic development in any field, there must be a well formulated policy/plan which seeks to guide the field. The necessary adjustments to the policy/plan are then made with advancing knowledge in the field. That is for Ghana and other African countries to make a leap in S&T, they need to have a sound S&T policy in place. Such a policy should be partly guided by the type of technology they wish to develop in their respective countries. Broadly speaking, two forms of technology could be available to a country and they are the Borrowed Technology (BT) and Indigenous Technology (IT). The former, as the name implies is a type of technology which is accessed from another country whilst the latter is developed in the home country.

Ghana and other African countries need to be clear about the direction they are taking as far as the two types of technology are concerned because, that will largely guide the nature of Research and Development (R&D)they set up.  The question then is, do African countries stick to the Borrowed Technology or the Indigenously Developed Technology, or use both of them simultaneously? Definitely, we cannot move away from developing our Indigenous Technology, because we need that to be able to process many of our raw materials that we consume and export. That is to say, the Indigenous Technology, when well-developed has several advantages including development of skills of the labor force, availability of jobs and reduced prices of consumer products. However, IT alone may not be enough to keep up with the technological demands of our growing economies and especially improve the standards of living of people in the short-term. And so in addition to the IT, African countries can borrow technology from scientifically and technologically developed countries, adapt and possibly improve such technology to suit their environment(s). For instance, one area of importance to many African countries is improving farm yields, and currently we are aware that Biotechnology among others has the power of accomplishing that task. So if such a technology is available we can establish an R&D to adopt and adapt it to our benefit – saving us the trouble of researching from the scratch. In other words, it will be a good idea if African countries formulate policies, which make use of both Indigenous Technology and Borrowed Technology simultaneously, which in turn is expected to guide planning and investments in R&D related to S&T development.

Funding is required to develop Indigenous Technology and properly use Borrowed Technology. Especially in the Borrowed Technology situation, expertise would have to be sought at a cost probably from the country or countries which have developed the technology. To minimize the costs for such technology transfers, the government of Ghana (and that of other African countries) should seek to form bilateral relations in science, technology and innovation with the industrialized and newly industrialized countries. Under such bilateral relations, we can benefit from among others, training of our personnel, sharing of technologies, solving of common problems together and systematic development of capacity and capability for science and technology. Such bilateral relations should also seek to actively establish research and training centers of excellence in Ghana (and other African countries). The African Union (AU) is poised to encourage the development of S&T in Africa and harmonize emerging technologies and innovations among member states, which is a good first step.

Funding for R&D in Science and Technology (S&T) can come from three main sources: the private sector, government funds and foreign loans. It is very helpful when the private sector contributes significantly to R&D development of a country because that means the private sector is robust and is building the skills of the labor force and creating jobs. However in Ghana, private sector contribution to R&D is very small (less than 5%) compared to about 40% or more in industrialized and newly industrialized countries. Government funding of R&D through locally generated funds is economically wise for the main reason that the government tends to dictate its scale of preference for projects and their funding. However, in the last case of funding R&D with foreign loans, there could be a problem in that the lender usually sets up guidelines for the use of the money and that could conflict with the priorities of the government and indeed the country. This situation can lead to stagnation or even retrogression in S&T growth. So it is advisable that government tries as much as possible to generate funds from its local resources to pursue R&D in S&T programs.

Process Plant Technology is a South African technology company, based in Johannesburg.

It must be understood that many of the countries which have excelled in S&T have devoted considerable amount of resources to R&D and currently, the percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) invested in R&D is an important parameter in measuring technological advancement. That is, in those countries with high science and technology development, investments have been between 1 – 4 % of their GDP. South Africa is investing close to 1% of its GDP in R&D and it appears to be the only country in Sub-Saharan Africa with advanced development in Science and Technology. In Ghana and in many other African countries, the percentage GDP invested in R&D has been below 0.5% and consequently, the level of S&T development in such countries has been poor. The African union (AU) recommended that African countries strived to achieve an investment of at least 1% of their GDP in R&D by 2010, but it is not clear how many African countries were able to meet that goal. It is imperative that African countries strive to achieve that goal and go beyond that in the short-term as part of their commitment to use S&T to transform the economies of their countries.

As we mentioned above, in Ghana, the contribution to R&D development from the private sector is very small. This does not augur well for development of S&T especially in the circumstances where government funding to that sector is also weak. Government must take bold steps to encourage R&D in industries by creating a congenial atmosphere for that purpose. It must also put in place measures which do not favor wholesale import of semi -finished goods to be assembled to finished products in Ghana – some of the key reasons being that, importation of semi finished products takes away research and development (R&D) from the local industry, diminishes technological advancement and reduces job creation, which are bad for the economy. So government must rather encourage imports of raw materials (if they cannot be found locally); and process such raw materials in Ghana to finished goods for consumption locally or for export.

One area lacking proper coordination and management in Ghana and other African countries is harnessing innovative ideas from academia and translating them into industrial products. To address that, government must set up an innovation and technology transfer office to oversee such creative endeavors. Such an office, among others will seek to minimize the bottlenecks which come up during the process.

These are few suggestions which will impact on the S&T development in Ghana and other African countries. Please look out for the next article.

By Nana Osei-Kwabena

sciencnt@yahoo.com

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Development of Science and Technology in Ghana – Part 3

This article will be focusing on tertiary education with emphasis on the universities in Ghana and how they influence the development of Science and Technology. Most of the points which we shall discuss are also shared by universities in other African countries. In Ghana, the National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE), under the Ministry of Education is directly responsible for managing tertiary education institutions. The universities are established to teach, educate, research and develop innovative ideas for the benefit of society, but depending on the resources a university has, its role may just be a partial fulfillment of the above functions.

Since the establishment of our public universities (University of Ghana, University of Science and Technology, University of Cape Coast) decades a go, there has been very little discussion about redesigning the curricula at the universities to specifically meet the demands of Science and Technology development in Ghana. Essentially, the same content of science syllabi has been taught over decades and may partially explain our present level of development in Science and Technology. The university graduates who have been produced by this system are not well suited to provide the necessary inputs for the Science and Technological development of our nation. In other words, they are unable to contribute effectively in that direction and the situation is not peculiar to Ghana, but to many other African countries. We need to take a critical look at the academic content of our science syllabi at the universities and restructure them to solve the problems of our country. To achieve this, academia and our local industry should foster good relationships so as to be able to identify specific problems in Science and Technology that need to be addressed in Ghana. The scientific and technological problems identified should then be reorganized and translated into a significant part of the lab and project work done at the universities. Such lab and project work will give room to students and professors alike to research and come up with solutions. A student who has graduated with such expertise is relevant to the economy because his or her skills can be directly employed or deployed to contribute to the Science and Technology development of the country.

This brings into question the state of funding at the universities to pursue Research and Development (R&D). Currently sources for funding R&D at the universities in Ghana mainly come from the government subvention, the GET fund and local industries. But contributions from these sources have not been enough to kick-start vigorous R&D in Ghana. I am suggesting here that a Research and Development Fund (RDF) is set up by the Ghana government and the government must be committed to contributing a reasonable percentage of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Ghana into it annually. This must be seen by the government as building the capacity and capability for Science and Technology development in Ghana. The rest of the contributions to the fund must come from local industries, the African development bank, universities and countries with economic interest in Ghana as well as philanthropists. Researchers will have access to funds from the RDF by developing research proposals (which should contain among others, the objectives of the research, methods to pursue the research, expected outcomes and amount of funds needed for that purpose) and submitting them to an independent body for consideration. Such a body should be made up of varied professionals such as science professors, entrepreneurs and social scientists who are knowledgeable in their field. One key requirement for awarding grant money to an applicant will be that the proposed research should seek to address some of the key problems of our country. To efficiently manage the funds, it will be the duty of government, policy makers and fund administrators to have a scale of preference in place to determine which areas of Science and Technology need urgent funding and/or more funding. Establishment of a robust RDF will be one of the few but effective ways of creating an enabling environment for research into Science and Technology in Ghana. In line with the above, the Government of Ghana should set up a Research, Technology and Innovation center (RTIC) at the universities if it has not already done so, to see to the patenting of ideas which come out of such pursuits and transfer the technology as appropriate.

Funding is not the only factor that limits research. In fact adequate time is also a requirement for research. Where the student: faculty ratio is large (that is a large student population compared to the number of professors), professors have little time to engage in research. This is because the professor spends most of his or her time meeting with students who need assistance and the rest of the time for marking/grading papers. To partially alleviate the situation so as to be able to create some time for research, I recommend the following: first, conditions should be created such that professors teach continuously and intensively for at most two semesters and then the third semester is devoted to intensive research – that is, alternating two semesters of teaching and one semester of research. Second, I recommend that we de-emphasize the essay question format. This is because the essay question format usually requires the experience and knowledge of only the lecturer to mark/grade and can involve a great deal of time if it is to be done objectively, whereas other formats like multiple -answer question could be graded by the Teaching Assistants (TAs). Thus, in any examination we can limit the essay-type questions to about 50 % or less, the professor then provides answer keys for the rest so that TAs can mark/ grade them.

Generally, because of the fast pace of research discoveries in Science and Technology in the developed world, there could be a gap in scientific/technological knowledge between professors in the developing and developed countries – with the professors in the developing countries being at a disadvantage. This calls for several measures. The most basic is that the universities must subscribe to leading journal publications from America and Europe. These publications must be made available in electronic form so that both students and professors can have easy access to them, and it is important that both of them read the material. Seminars must be regularly organized to give room to both students and professors to discuss latest information they have read and gathered from the journals. This will partially bridge the information gap. I am also proposing that, it is about time we look into making some of our professors in the developed countries adjunct professors in our local universities. What that means is that, such professors in the developed countries will be attached to our local universities and they will spend about a month or so annually teaching at our universities. The adjunct professors will help build syllabi, teach and give seminars in areas they think are “new” in their field. This is intended to bridge the science information and technology gap between the developed and developing nations like Ghana. After all, this is not a new concept in other fields – especially soccer. When Ghana and other countries are going to play international games, they invite seasoned professionals playing in other countries to join the national team so as to increase their chances of winning. So we can employ the same technique here with our skilled science and technology professionals in the developed countries.

It is not clear whether the universities in Ghana (and for that matter other African countries) have a reward system in place for the professors teaching and researching on Science and Technology. Here, it is suggested that a well formulated reward system be put in place to acknowledge professors who are able to contribute to the development of Science and Technology in Ghana. Specifically, the system must identify and reward professors who are able to develop innovations which can lead to or has led to better technologies to teach science, process food and medicinal plants, increase the yield of animal and crop farming, tap into wind, solar and biomass energy… just to mention a few. And the reward should come in the form of good salary, research funding, equipment and larger laboratory space.

These factors are likely to attract and retain good professors, and catalyze the Science and Technology development in Ghana and other African countries. Please look out for the next article.

By Nana Osei-Kwabena
sciencnt@yahoo.com

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Development of Science and Technology in Ghana/Africa – 2

By Nana Osei-Kwabena

This article will be focusing on pre-tertiary education in Ghana and how it influences the development of Science and Technology. Parallel examples would be drawn from other African countries as appropriate.

The Ghana education system and that of many other countries can be divided into two main areas:  pre-tertiary and tertiary education. In Ghana, the pre-tertiary is managed by the Ghana Education Service (GES) whereas the tertiary is managed essentially by the National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE). How do we define education? There are several definitions available, but I will define education as a systematic development of the human mind through a measured exposure to information and reasoning.

For decades, the educational system of Ghana and that of the West African Examination Council (WAEC) member countries were based on an adapted British educational system, which entailed 6 years of primary education, 4 years of middle school and 7 years of secondary education.  Policy makers in Ghana identified several problems with this system, which included prolonged school years and purely academic content of curricula. And so in in 1987, the pre-tertiary education in Ghana was radically reformed. The length for pre-tertiary education was shortened to: 6 years primary, 3 years Junior Secondary School (JSS) and 3 years Senior Secondary School (SSS). In essence, pre-tertiary education was shortened from 17 to 12 years. The direct effect of this reform was that it reduced the cost of pre-tertiary education and made more funds available to expand and improve existing infrastructure so as to partially meet the requirements of the Free and Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE) for all.  Currently, all the WAEC member countries are using this system and it appears similar to the American pre-tertiary education system. Though a lot of effort has gone into the implementation of the new educational system, it has had its fair share of problems. Among others, all of the WAEC member states have been faced with various degrees of poor examination performance in science – as have been determined by WAEC. And the cause may be one of two things, that the educational system is not working well for our students in science or it is lacking the necessary inputs to enable it work efficiently. In any system, a good input usually produces a good output (and vice versa) and so the latter point of lack of necessary inputs may be a large contributor to the poor performance in science of the current educational system. This is not to say that the WAEC member countries including Ghana are not working on the problems. In fact they are, but then they must prioritize Science and Technology to enable it to receive the necessary resources (human, funding and recognition) to thrive.

The quality of science and technological education at the Junior Secondary School (JSS) level is crucial because it is a foundation for further science studies at the Senior Secondary School (SSS) or entry into the labor force. However, many of the teachers who handle this subject are SSS graduates who may not have mastery over the subject. This issue is particularly prominent in the private sector. To make the situation worse, many of these SSS graduate teachers of science may not have majored in science at the SSS. And so, poor science is done/delivered at the JSS level making the students perceive science as a difficult and complicated subject – a perception that can be carried with them for the better part of their school life and influence their decisions in Science and Technology in the future. As our student population grows and Science and Technology evolves, so should be our trained teachers. It is a good effort by the government of Ghana to develop the teacher training certificate programs into diploma programs. However, here it is recommended that the government of Ghana makes plans to strengthen the science discipline in the 38 or so training colleges in Ghana and more importantly encourage more teachers to be trained in science and technical skills so that they can replace some of the SSS teachers. Several more training colleges should also be built for that purpose. The other WAEC member countries can work along similar lines.

In 1995, the government of Ghana established the Science Resource Centers (SRC) project as part of the educational reforms. The SRCs covered one hundred and ten (110) senior secondary schools spread across Ghana. The idea behind this project was to bridge the gap between resourced schools and non-resourced schools in science within a forty kilometer radius. Indeed, this was a bold decision taken by government of Ghana. Assuming that the resource centers had enough funds to buy equipment and materials, the one most important element/factor that will be needed for successful delivery of science education at such places will be the competency, dedication and current knowledge in science and technology of the teaching staff. That is not or cannot be guaranteed and so it would not be out of place if professors at our universities are attached to the SRCs – to assist in the teaching of especially more difficult concepts in theory and lab work to both teachers and students. In fact in the United States, many science College professors are tied to the high schools. They go there to teach and also to oversee what their colleagues at the high schools do. This is an inspiration to both teachers and students alike. In the same manner, SSS science teachers should be attached to JSS schools so that they can offer some help in the teaching of the science subject at that level. This measure will allow for fluidity in Science and Technological education in Ghana and other African countries.

The science syllabi of the old educational system and the new one are not very much different in academic content but the students within the new educational system are much younger than the old system. It will not be productive to essentially stick to the science syllabi of the old system if we want to make progress, because those syllabi do not have aspects that seriously deal with the problems of our country. We should seek to comprehensively redesign the science syllabi and make them more relevant to our economy. The syllabi should be able to cover at least some of the basic problems we face as a nation and creative methods (which will not be limiting) to remedy them. I recommend that about 10 – 40% of the science syllabi (whether integrated science or pure science subjects) are devoted for this purpose and the rest to the core science principles – for the duration of the pre-tertiary education. These percentages should be linked to the level of education such that at the primary school level, 10 -15% of the science syllabi will be devoted to problems and solutions confronting the nation, 15-25% at the JSS and 25-40% at the SSS. Equally important is the fact the syllabi should be directed towards raising curiosity, creativity and entrepreneurship in students. To craft such a syllabi will require extensive brainstorming by competent scientist, policy makers and even business people. We should not assume that the problems of the country can be best tackled at the university. National development in Science and Technology in our present circumstances will require the contribution from all.

Another area which needs serious consideration is the lack of well written textbooks (either from the government or the public) to suit the demands of our science and technological development. Most of the science books on the market are still essentially based on the old educational system. Though I think it is a good and bold step to produce indigenous books for use by our students, the book writers must be assisted. It would not be out of place if the Curricula Research and Development Division (CRDD) of the Ghana Education Service and similar bodies of other WAEC member countries organize workshops for book writers in their respective countries or together so that authors are more informed of what is required of them and that the CRDD have some control of what the public consumes in terms of scientific material. From my standpoint, attending the CRDD workshops should be a pre-condition for writing science books, and with time more stringent measures could be put in place to control quality of science material on the market.

These are a few of the adjustments we could make to the pre-tertiary educational sector in Ghana/Africa to boost Science and Technology development. Please look out for the next article.

By Nana Osei-Kwabena

Email: sciencnt@yahoo.com

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Developing Science and Technology in Ghana/Africa – Part 1

In this series of articles, we shall be identifying problems facing the development of Science and Technology in Ghana and attempt to propound solutions to them.

Science is a branch of knowledge that discovers facts about repeated occurrences (whether in nature or in the laboratory) and formulates theories and laws on them. Technology on the other hand is the utilization of these laws to make devices that enhance our living standards or enable us to do more science. In most cases, Science and Technology go hand- in-hand but a strong scientific base is needed for technological advancement.

The importance of Science and Technology cannot be over emphasized. Science and Technology is one of the key paths for rapid economic development and industrialization of any country. Science and Technology allows for the country’s natural resources to be processed in good quantities before exported as value added good (industrialization and commercialization). Science and Technology brings innovation such as discovery of a drug which treats diseases with unmet medical needs or equipment for performing difficult tasks. These innovations (including the processed raw materials) can be exported for foreign exchange, which in turn improves the standards of living of the people of the country and is good way of transforming developing nations like Ghana into the middle income economy or higher.

But Science and Technology is not a natural resource of any country. This resource can be developed or acquired with determination and commitment from governments and policy implementers. When we obtained independence in 1957, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah announced plans for moving Ghana rapidly into middle income economy – by developing the Science and Technology capability and capacity of Ghana. Subsequently he established several research bodies and built infrastructure to see to the implementation of Science and Technology development in Ghana. But most of the institutions/infrastructure he put in place did not benefit much from his foresight as he was overthrown shortly afterwards. Notwithstanding, subsequent governments of Ghana have made modest additions (over approximately 40 years) to the existing infrastructure and institutions for Science and Technology development but the impact has hardly been felt. This is because we are still faced with problems of the primitive technology era such as:

1.       Frequent power outages

2.       Dependence on rain-fed agriculture and use of hoes, machetes for farming

3.       Lack of capacity to process raw materials including maize, cassava, tomatoes and the like

4.       Poor health care

5.       Heavy dependence on imported goods including food, second-hand clothing and shoes

6.       Many parts of the country are still underdeveloped and live in darkness

7.       Lack of creativity among many science graduates

8.       Dependence  on cement for building, with hardly any alternatives

…….Just to mention a few.

What is surprising is that, the problems confronting science and technology in Ghana especially in the 21st century is not different from many an African country and so the question arises as to what African countries consciously or unconsciously do similarly to slow down the development of science and technology? It may not be possible to know all the facts at least from my standpoint of view, but what many African governments share in common among others is that, their countries:

1.       Do not have systematic policy for Science and Technology development

2.       Have a very small fraction of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) set aside for Science and Technology development

3.       Are not developing and adapting  appropriate technology – ‘approtech’ for their economies

4.       Are not sharing information in Science and Technology with other African countries

5.       Are not building common science research centers for African development

6.       Do not have right caliber and number of  human resources to teach science

7.       Teach science without the necessary creativity and lab work to back it

8.       Have high illiteracy and poverty rates making Science and Technology an abstract discipline

9.       Are not attracting their citizens who have been scientifically trained in developed countries

If it is the commitment of the government and people of Ghana to transform the country from low income into the middle income economy in the near future, then it is imperative that we make Science and Technology a major resource for Ghana. Because irrespective of the amount and number of natural resources we have, without Science and Technology we can never truly benefit from such resources. In the next few articles we shall attempt to examine the situation further and look at areas that can help improve and develop Science and Technology in Ghana/Africa.

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