Association seeks govt, others support for girls in science related careers
By Gift Bayo
The Association of Professional Women Engineers of Nigeria (APWEN) has called for government, Non Governmental Organisations’ (NGO)and other stakeholders support for ‘FUN STEM’ to motivate young girls to choose science and engineering related careers.
Dr Elizabeth Eterigho, an Engineer, made the call in Abuja at the second edition of introducing Fun and Excitement into STEM learning.
The event was organised by APWEN and sponsored by Worley Foundations.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) is an umbrella term used to group together the distinct but related technical disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
FUN STEM refers to engaging and hands-on activities that involve science, technology, engineering, and mathematics concepts. designed to spark curiosity, foster creativity, and encourage problem-solving skills in students while having fun..
Eterigho said that APWEN was committed to erasing stereotypes by using community projects to grill young girls in STEM learning.
“There are learning crisis, which lead to skills crisis including difficulty in accessing quality learning opportunities in STEM subjects traditionally credited to and dominated by boys.
“Girls tend to outperform boys in reading skills in most regions, however, they continue to be under-represented amongst top performers in STEM subjects, which in turn leads to under-representation of women in the STEM workforce,” she said.
Eterigho said the mission of APWEN was to increase the awareness that engineering is an absolute career for girls, thereby improving the numerical strength of female engineers in Nigeria.
She added, “Last year got alot of good feedback from schools to carryout another edition and we have 100 students that participated so far in the two sections.”
Eterigho said that the programme was to prepare the next generation of girls in rural areas to inculcate interest in STEM education at a young age as well compete convinently in those careers.
“There is every need to bring up students who attend public schools to same level as those that attend private schools in terms of STEM teaching,” Eterigho said.
She described the first edition with a three-day programme for training of teachers and students on hands-on-training in Lagos and Port Harcourt as fruitful.
” This year is the second edition and we are capturing two major cities in Nigeria, Abuja and Sapelle in Edo,” she said.
Project Manager, DeltaAfrik, Adedoyin Talabi, advised students to be interested in learning new things and develop themselves.
She said there were so many things students could learn online instead of wasting their times on social media.
“I want to challenge you today that if you are on Facebook go and sign out yourself.
“Use that avenue that you have to access internet to learn new things. Don’t use it for Facebook and Titok. Even if it 30 minutes a day go and learn coding, data analysis.
“You don’t have to learn from you own experience. Larn from your parents and your mentors’ experience to build your life, ” Talabi said.
She said that everyday comes with a gift, which every young student must embrace for his or her benefits.
The President, Nigeria Society of Engineers (NSE) Tasiu Gidari, stressed the need to inculcate the study of science into young ones, which will help them in the future.
Gidari, represented by a National Exco member, Rachel Ugye, commending APWEN for carrying out what he described as a good act, expressed the NSE’s support for APWEN’s activities.
“Today , we don’t need graduate with certificates we need graduate with skills.
“So, if you start teaching them at the tender age, by the time they get to senior secondary school, they would have already chosen their paths which is engineering and have skills to exploit, ” Gidari said.
Mr Agaba Dunia, the representative of Chairman, FCT Universal Basic Education Board, described FUN STEM platform as an opportunity for children to learn and take science as a career as they progress in educational pursuit.
Dunia advised students to make use of the opportunity and learn things that would mould their future.
Idris Rabiu, a student of Junior Secondary School P.W Kubwa said that FUN STEM has helped her to make the right decision to study science.
” I never had any interest in science before. before, I thought science was difficult and I made up my mind that I want to study art.
*Now I know science is easy and simple, I decided to study science,” Rabiu said.(NAN)(www.nannews.ng)
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Edited by Bashir Rabe Mani
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