Dela Torre, Wynona Mae G.

Mar 09, 2023

BS PetEng 1B1 GE-STS
STS Prof. Lea M. Camangeg

Critique Paper 3: (The roles of science and technology in national development by

Anaeto, F. C., Asiabaka, C. C., Ani, A. O., Nnadi, F. N., Ugwoke F. O., Asiabaka I.
P., Anaeto, C. A. and Ihekeronye N.)

Synopsis
The research paper is entitled: “The roles of science and technology in national
development” by Anaeto et al., and is published in the Department of Agricultural
Extension, Federal University of Technology, P.M.B 1526, Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria.
The paper emphasized how and why science and technology will contribute the most
in economic development of Nigeria and every other country. It elaborated how
science and technology are connected and their roles in different aspects of our
country, focusing on the gaps and vulnerable points that must be addressed in Nigeria.
Science and technology are the key to societal development. Utilization of
technology improved the life of every people and fueled the growth of economy.
According to the article, countries who invested heavily in science and technology
since the 19th century until now are more developed and advanced. These are also
important for national development because it provide solutions to the problems that
we faced before and we are going to face in the future. Moreover, it alleviates poverty
and improved the health of the people as it provides cure in many diseases that were
the cause of high mortality rate before, making the people’s lives better and longer. It
also enhanced our agriculture system as it discovered a way to provide a higher yields,
greater efficiency, and greater nutritional content in the worlds food supply. It is also
hoped that advancement in technology could find solutions to other problems faced in
our food production. Application of researches were able to find and continues to seek
new technologies that are environmentally and socially sustainable such as renewable
energy to meet the demands of every country. Technology is also the way to give
people a clean and safe water supply and sanitation. It is stated in the paper that 1.3
billion people lack access to an adequate supply of safe- water, two billion people do
not have access to adequate sanitation, and water pollution causes millions of
preventable deaths each year, especially among children. The only solution to this
problem is to innovate new technologies that will lessen and eventually eliminate these
problems. Environmental issues continues to arise these days as more pollution, both
in water and land affects not just the people but every living thing around it. Science
and technology are capable to find solutions to these problems through researches so
the country could adapt and mitigate its effects. With these problems being solved by
the technology, economic growth will prevail as the lives of people will get better giving
us a greater productivity thus, will make our economy to grow. Of course, in order for
the science and technology to flourish, we need a capable and equipped citizens to
make these happen and that will be through education. The youth should be prepared
and trained through giving them a proper education that will mold them as a great
scientists of one’s nation. To sum this up, the paper emphasizes that every country
especially Nigeria, needs to invest and improve science and technology through
adoption of appropriate policies and activities on at least four areas: human resources
development, demand for knowledge in the private sector, public support of science
and technology and access to information and communication technologies (lCT).

Critical point:
The critical point I have here is the need to emphasize the country of Nigeria,
not just because it is the authors’ country, but Nigeria really experiences a crisis in
their science and technology. The objectives of science education in Nigeria have not
been actually achieved due to many challenges facing the implementation of the
program in the Nigerian educational institutions, especially in senior secondary
schools. One of the major challenges facing the Nigerian educational system is the
problem of implementation. Many educational programs started in the country in past
were poorly implemented. Due to poor implementation, sciences teachers cannot
deliver effective teaching (Olatunde and Ogunode, 2021). The basic foundation of
science and technology is education, now if they already have troubles establishing it,
how can they be able to have manpower to create such technologies that will help
their country? The study was just published in 2021, meaning it is very recent, meaning
maybe up until today, they are still experiencing this crisis, so they should make plans
and strategies to resolve this or they will suffer from the consequences that these
problems will bring to their country. According to the World Bank in Nigeria, in 2018,
40% of Nigerians (83 million people) lived below the poverty line, while another 25%
(53 million) were vulnerable. With Nigeria’s population growth continuing to outpace
poverty reduction, the number of Nigerians living in extreme poverty is set to rise by
7.7 million between 2019 and 2024. Nigeria indeed faces a severe poverty and the
only escape they have from it is their investment in science and technology education.

Relevance to Society
This is relevant to our society today because it serves as our lesson. We cannot
argue the fact that Philippines also faces poverty as well but not as severe as in
Nigeria. We also face problems in our science and technology. However, unlike them,
we already created a plan, a strategy to address these issues and this is the Ambisyon
Natin 2040. Although not all of them are already achieved, but a lot of them were
already done. Since we are still in the halfway, there is still more to do. So the
government should take this seriously and continue its progress so that in 2040,
Filipinos will no longer suffer from poverty and experience the welfare that Ambisyon
2040 has achieved.

References:
Olatunde-Aiyedun, T. G., & Ogunode, N. J. (2021). Shortage of professional science
and environmental education teachers in Nigeria. Asian Journal of Science
Education, 3(1), 1-11.
The World Bank in Nigeria. Last modified Sep 14, 2022.
https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/nigeria/overview