Ghana has paid too much lip service to science and technology - ATPS

Accra, June 28, GNA - The efforts, as a country at encouraging the study of science and technology are at best third-rate, the African Technology and Policy Studies (ATPS) Network, Ghana Chapter, said in a statement on Thursday.

The organization noted that insufficient training on the part of science teachers, lack of equipment and teaching aids reflected the low value that science occupied in the national priority. The statement issued to mark the Scientific Revival Day of Africa celebrated on the 30th of June every year by African countries was also used to draw attention of African leaders attending the African Union Summit to review the extent of the celebration of the day by using it to asses the commitment to science and technology on the African continent. The statement noted that Ghana like many African states had paid too much lip service to science and technology, and said the Lagos plan of Action (1980) came as a ray of hope but nothing came out of it. "The fact is, just as light makes the difference between day and night, so does science divide the developed and the underdeveloped world."

The statement said: "It is our belief that national wealth does not lie in the presence of raw materials but on the different and value added products that can be obtained from these raw materials. Incidentally science, technology and innovations are what it takes to create such value added products and hence make a nation wealthy." It said, recently, the General Assembly of the African Union set at least one percent of the Gross Domestic Product of member states to the development of science and technology by 2010. As part of the celebration of the day, ATPS would turn to children with the aim of creating the critical mass of scientists, researchers and teachers needed to transform the country from agrarian to industrial economies.

The organization will on that day explain the importance and necessity for science, technology and innovation. ATPS expressed the hope that Ghana would succeed in catching the attention of the young to science and technology while saluting all hardworking scientists of the nation and all those working in the research ad tertiary institutions as well as those who facilitate the teaching of science and technology.