By Stephen Kwabena Effah
Wednesday, 28 November 2007
The President of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences, Dr. Letitia Obeng, has urged Ghanaians to comprehend the place of science in their lives to effectively fight poverty and reach higher heights in life.
"It appears that in Ghana, science has such a low rating in the assessment of things that there is only a lukewarm interest and, at best, inadequate public involvement in issues related to science," she observed.
Giving her presidential address in Accra on Monday to mark this year’s Founder’s Week of the Academy, she said that "It seems that science and technology are definitely not priority areas in Ghana".
The week is under the theme: "National Development in the Past 50 Years"
Dr. Obeng explained: "In this age when the life of society is firmly based on science, it is only logical that citizens must be empowered to understand something about science… as we pursue a culture of science."
She said that awareness and involvement in science in Ghana is mainly through the education system and science and technology research institutions, which she said, is far from "a show of national consciousness of science."
Dr Obeng described as invalid, the argument that the absence of science is due to poor infrastructure and funding, noting that the country currently has a number of universities, polytechnics, and research institutions which turn out large numbers of science graduates.
"So really, the country has no excuse for not having a strong science presence in our culture she said, adding "we need science to regulate and make our response to political, economic, social and development problems effective."
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