The popularity o natural sciences, and energy resources management in schools, in central and northern regions

Abstract

The UN Secretary-General’s Scientific Advisory Board (UNSG SAB) recommended to maximize the contribution of science beyond a ‘means of implementation’ with regard to achieving the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs. Moreover, the Natural Sciences is UNESCO’s second major programme and UNESCO believes that science must respond to societal needs and global challenges through improved understanding of sciences and citizen participation. There are currently increasing concerns about the continued low popularity of sciences and mathematics in the minds of students and hence students’ continued poor performance in these subjects. In this regard, the Uganda National Commission for UNESCO trained science teachers from Central and Northern regions as champions to popularize natural sciences in schools in April 2017. This followed an earlier training in energy education and management of energy resources in schools that took place in June 2016. To assess the impact of the above trainings, a monitoring and evaluative mission was conducted from 9th to 11th of April 2018 covering 6 of the beneficiary schools in four Districts of Nakasongola, Kiryadongo, Nwoya and Oyam. The overall objective was to follow up the teachers who were trained as champions for popularizing sciences and energy management in their schools, find out if the trained teachers shared the knowledge acquired from the training with the other teachers working at the school and assess the progress made or other outstanding issues related to the learning of sciences, energy and management of energy resources. The methods used included observation, discussions and questionnaires tailored to the different stakeholders (Headteacher, Science Teachers and Students). The Monitoring and Evaluation showed that the goals of the workshops were achieved to greater extent. This is due to the selection of some of the representatives that was not effective as only two teachers trained were available when the different schools were visited. Only few of the representatives shared their acquired knowledge with the other teachers back in their schools and colleges. Therefore, though the training provided relevant information, some of the trained teachers kept the knowledge to themselves. The programme needs to be continued as science needs to be popularized, especially among students.