Break cultural barriers to physics - Professor

Accra (Greater Accra), 16 March '99 -

Professor S. K. Adjepong, Vice-Chancellor, University of Cape Coast (UCC), on Tuesday called on African countries to break cultural barriers against the teaching and learning of science subjects, especially physics. He said children should not be frightened about scientific questions and should not be brushed aside by adults when they ask inquisitive questions, which are challenging to the mind. Professor Adjepong was opening a 10-day workshop at the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission, Accra, for about 30 physics teachers in senior secondary schools drawn from Ghana, Nigeria, Togo, Benin, Burkina Faso and Liberia. The workshop, which will treat topics such as "heat, waves" and "physics and society" is to enable the participants to interact and share ideas about how best to make the teaching and learning of the subject interesting so that more students would offer it at the highest levels. It is being sponsored by National Centre for Mathematical Sciences of the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission, the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics, The Society of African Physicists and Mathematicians, The Ghana Institute of Physics, and The Energy Research Group. Professor Adjepong regretted the dearth of physics teachers in Africa even though "physics forms the basis for science and technology, engineering, ecology, medicine, agriculture and other material sciences" "It is, therefore, essential to encourage more students to study physics at the secondary school level. "This cannot be achieved unless there are dedicated and efficient teachers, who are well versed in the appropriate physics teaching methodology and other educational and motivational skills that are required to excite the students to appreciate the subject and enjoy learning it". He said the girls should even be motivated more to study the subject because "physics is practiced more in the kitchen than elsewhere since one has to cook under a certain temperature with the adequate heat and the right quantity of water". Professor Adjepong said research into physics and its teaching must have multi-disciplinary approach where knowledge is shared in partnership with those who generate it.