Improving STEM education
A person wrote to me: “Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) may be good education foundation for developed countries like the U.S. but not so important to an agriculture country like mine. We need to continue our education based on our own traditional agricultural culture rather than adopt something like computer technology…. ”
Answer: Today we are no longer live in isolation like several hundred years ago. Every country is now a part of a connected world where technology impacts everything regardless whether the countries are agriculture or industry. Today STEM education determines a country's capacity to apply technology to everything to innovate and grow its economy. To strengthen your economy, create more jobs, your country must strengthen STEM education. Do not confuse STEM with computer technology. STEM is much broader than you think. For example, Medicine is a field of science in STEM; Agriculture is also a field of science in STEM.
Long time ago, farmers keep farming knowledge within their family or villages. These knowledge are passed from one generation to others, as parents taught their children. Eventually villages exchange ideas with one another about ways to improve crops. Today scientific and technological advances have greatly impacted on agriculture. Scientists develop new farming methods and techniques that can yield better products and agriculture is no longer a traditional knowledge but a completely scientific field. Today farmers learn to rotate their crops for better yields; they learn to diversify their crop for better production. Advances in technology helps farmers to use machines to cover more land at a faster pace and increase their profits. Advance weather technology system predicts when would be the best time for farmers to plant crops and how to irrigate their land to avoid drought. The Internet provides news to also help farmers to know market values of their crops. They learn about supply and demand so they can plant their crops accordingly. They learn about soil conservation to prevent erosion and protect their water. By searching the Internet, they can learn about new ideas and methods. They learn about technologies such as food-freezing processes that revolutionized food storage. They learn about hybrid seed that can increase crop production. All of these advances in the area of science and technology have resulted significant improvement in agriculture and the lives of farmers.
According to a report from the United Nation, STEM education is more needed in developing countries than developed countries because it is the key factor to help these countries to catch up and improve their economies. I believe your country needs to adopt STEM education so that ALL students, not a few fortunate enough to go oversea to study, to have strong skills in STEM. According to the report, there will be 4.5 million new jobs in STEM fields created in the next five years (By 2020) and countries that have enough of these skills will thrive in both economy and wealth. Currently all over the world, many countries are adopting STEM as the new foundation for their education systems and produce STEM skilled graduates to solve unemployment issue because STEM skills are not just a source of jobs; they are a source of jobs that pay very well. I think improvement in STEM education will help improve the knowledge, the skills and allow your people, especially young people, to understand what is possible, what can be achieved, so they can help improve the economy.
In the past few years, I have seen many countries adopting STEM as the foundation for their education systems. However, some countries poured money to buy more computers, equipments, and build expensive laboratories but that was not the right things to do first. Computer and expensive equipments alone do not change anything without proper skilled people to use them. These countries do not understand that STEM based education must start with the teachers. By having a strategy to reinvigorate the teaching profession; by retraining existing teachers; by producing more STEM knowledge teachers; by reward them for performance; by raising their wages, so they can focus on teaching where they do best. By ensuring that every student, from kindergarten to college, has access to these effective and skilled teachers, your education will improve. Only then your country will be able to develop the best talents that will advance your country to catch up and compete in this global economy.
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
