Try community science labs
Government has decided to halt the implementation of the science curriculum which was supposed to roll out in the 2014/2015 academic year. I believe that government has taken heed of the numerous voices that raised many valid concerns about the country’s derisory readiness to effectively implement the new curriculum. It is evident that as the science curriculum has been developed, there has been little effort on preparing the education sector to support implementation of this curriculum, even in the introductory phase.
Some of the apparent challenges that ought to be urgently addressed include insufficient number of qualified science teachers, pitiable and inadequate science infrastructure in schools as well as inadequate teaching and learning materials for science subjects like textbooks and laboratory equipment.
As government and all other stakeholders are now trying to come up with ways of dealing with the various concerns they will be looking at the short-term, medium-term and long-term ways that would ensure sustainable successful implementation of the science curriculum.
The Ministry of Education recently announced its intention to acquire mobile laboratories to address the shortage of science laboratories in our secondary schools, especially in community day secondary schools (CDSS). This is a welcome idea in the short run, but should not be adopted as a long-term solution as it would be very costly and difficult to sustain. In the long -term, I believe that shortage of laboratories can be best dealt with by introducing community laboratories to be overseen by a specialised body hypothetically called National Educational Laboratory Services (MELS). This body should be responsible for planning, construction and management of community laboratories.
These community laboratories would be located at community day secondary schools, community centres, trading centres and other places that are easily accessible to many schools. We can start constructing these labs little by little setting targets each year and making necessary adjustments to our original plan as we go along.
The community laboratories would be open to both government and private schools for practical science lessons. This is so because we have so many private secondary schools in our localities which cannot afford to have their own science labs and even if they did they would be substandard. If we are serious about inculcating science culture in our children, we must incorporate those that are in private schools. Each community laboratory would have to develop a timetable in liaison with all the schools that would be using that particular lab so that all four classes from each and every school are allocated sufficient lab time.
I would propose that these schools should contribute a small membership fee as members of that community lab and they should renew their membership after a specific period of time. The contributed funds would cater for the day to day running and maintenance of the lab; for example, they can be used to buy chemicals, fix broken things, and pay security, bills and many other minor things that require quick financial attention. If the lab is located at a CDSS that school would not have to pay anything but other schools would have to pay, especially private schools. If the lab is not located in school premises then all schools have to contribute, however, government schools may be exempted from this fee. This contribution would ensure collective responsibility and help reduce government’s burden.
Adopting the concept of community labs would ensure that our science labs meet and maintain the required standards for secondary school science laboratories. This would also ensure progressive upgrading of the standards so that they are up-to-date. As a nation we have a bad tendency of not maintaining our educational infrastructure leaving them in dilapidated and unusable state, therefore, having a specialised body that oversees the community laboratories would ensure that the labs get maintained routinely. I believe that this idea is actually achievable if diligently implemented and that it would greatly make the science curriculum effective and successful. I know some people will trash this as a mere dream, well “dreams are seedlings of reality.”- Napoleon Hill.
—The author is an education expert.
