27 January 2010

Lagos — Dr. Kelvin Urama, the Executive Director for African Technology Policy Studies Network (ATPS) based in Nairobi, Kenya, with national chapters in 23 African countries, in this interview with ERASMUS ALANEME, stressed the need for fundamental change in Africa's educational curriculum and the craze for certificates.

What is the role of science technology and Innovation (STI) in the development of Africa?

Science technology and innovation is normally the engine of development of any country or any continent and Africa cannot be different. If we think about industrial revolution, it was technology and science that drove that revolution. but now the new knowledge, global knowledge economy that we are having, it is science technology and innovation that is a mixture of these three that actually defines the capacity of a country to innovate, the capacity of countries to improve competitiveness and the capacity of continents even to live sustainably with the environment.

With little technology transfer we are talking about Asian tigers but it is not so for Africa , what is the problem?

Now the problem of Africa is the fact that Science Technology and Innovation is still happening separately, we are still not having a system that works, so we need to start building national system of science technology and innovation, what we call the NSI in other to be able to drive development. If you think about a car you may have a good tyre or a good engine but none of them can work on its own to deliver the service of transportation except if they work together.

So that collaboration and cooperation in a national system of innovation is what I think is the missing link in Africa .. And then the capacity for science and technology in Africa is still not as good as it should be and sometimes you still have science that is not truly socialized in Africa, so we are having science and publications that are not addressing African problems. So we need to really try to root science in African soil and be able to address our own problem. So instead of talking about big publications we are only talking about solving African problem..

Do you think African countries are running the type of education needed to develop the continent or will Western education do that for us?

I will say that the education system we have in Africa is still pretty much colonial, and that is not the fault of Africans or the fault of the colonial masters it was the type of education needed at the time in order to service the industries and the type of development that we were seeing at that time. But knowledge is dynamic, education is dynamic, everything is changing and African education system also needs to change.

In April I was giving a keynote address here in Abuja to the Association of African Universities (AAU) and I spoke on 'Higher Education for Sustainable Development in Africa' and there I was making some propositions that we really need to rethink our system of education in Africa .

Our curriculum needs to change, our institutions and structures need to change, our mindset of what is good science need to change. Good science should no longer be defined by how the publications are good but actually how much impact it has on society. And that is the reason why ATPS and its partners are talking about socialization of science and technology that will be able to embed science on African societies and be able to address our own problem. We need to change our research assessment processes, where we should not be thinking about impact of journals but actually impact of research on the ground. Science technology and innovation means nothing if it doesn't solve local problem.

What direction? Are you advocating  curriculum change to ensure that this happens in Africa?

Curriculum change is a long process and for me it actually needs to start from the mindset, what do we call science, what do we call technology and what do we call innovation? If we begin to change these fundamental concepts, the pedagogy we have and then the system of teaching and learning we have, then we will be able to start evolving the new science that we want for Africa, the new types of technology we want for Africa and the type of innovation that we also need. And that is where, what we need to do is to start from building capacity. Building capacity to create a critical mass of scientists that understands science for development, of technologists that understands technology for development, and also innovators that understands how to screen the market in order to be able to take science from the labs to the fields, to the markets, to the poor so that we will be able to change lives and also have value addition, increase competitiveness and so on.

And that is where we have the need for such organizations like the African Technology Policy Studies Network that is mainly having its motto as 'building African science technology and innovation today for sustainable development tomorrow' our duty is to try and create African societies and African universities, African policy makers. We talk about the quadruple heading, the four arms of the innovation system that would make policies work in Africa .

We have the governance system and in the governance system we are saying that all the governance structure needs to work together. We don't need to have a Ministry of Agriculture working alone and away from the Ministry of Education because it needs science in order to do agriculture. You don't need Ministry of Science and Technology working alone and working independently of the Ministry of Finance because it needs finance in order to implement its programmes. And that is where National System of Innovation (NSI) becomes a very important thing and it is not to say we dissolve these ministries; no, it is actually so that we build synergies, we build complementarities and all of us can work together in order to deliver our common goal which is development.

And this where I really applaud the Nigerian government for the move it has taken and also in the Vision 20-20-20 where it is now, mainstreaming science technology and innovation and also the Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC) that collaborated with ATPS and other partners in order to begin thinking of creating committee for the national science technology and innovation council, committee for Nigeria.

From All Africa.Com.