Letter of the Day | All must be on board for STEM initiative
Published:Monday | December 2, 2019 | 12:00 AM
THE EDITOR, Madam:
The prime minister’s push for STEM (sciences, technology, engineering and mathematics) programmes to be urgently and proactively assimilated throughout the education system – in an attempt to boost productivity by way of jobs suited for the 21st century – is greatly welcome and is truly a breath of fresh air.
Furthermore, this is a stern reminder to stakeholders involved – in the imminent success of such a programme in tandem with the National Standards Curriculum (NSC) – to play their hands wisely in getting the nation aligned with new developments across the globe, specifically in the realms of the sciences, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Such a programme has long been initiated by the Ministry of Education through the Education System Transformation Programme and in conjunction with the United States Agency for International Development – who has been funding such an initiative from its embryonic stage.
A programme of this sort has been utilised in every First-World nation to empower and safeguard its infrastructures as well as to cater to the growing minds among its populace. In lieu of this, the NSC is the elixir that can remedy STEM programmes to where the country ought to be, on par with First-World initiatives.
The NSC is richly endowed with STEM-based activities that ought to be implemented in daily lessons across schools at the primary and secondary levels; most notably, grades one through to nine.
Even more, as a means to strengthen the effectiveness of the methodology associated the NSC, teachers were engaged in myriads of workshops and are still being trained and monitored in its effectual execution.
Most teachers’ colleges have been assiduously and robustly retooling their syllabi on how to train prospective candidates for the classrooms in order to adapt to the NSC as well as the STEM methodology – in an effort to meet 21st-century teacher-training standards.
FOCUS OF ALL
The Most Honourable Prime Minister – in collaboration with the Ministry of Education – should ensure that any programme pertaining to the advancement of STEM teaching and learning ought not to be affiliated with a single organisation.
However, such should be the focus of every stakeholder – to successfully carry through the process in the establishing of 21st-century STEM institutions that will drive up productivity at every level of the nation.
Henceforth, collective views – accepted by all for national development – ought to be the panacea to achieving its ultimate goals in this day and age. Shouldn’t we all be on board for this one?
EJAL TREBUH EROOM
STEM Facilitator