Flagship Programmes

Science Education

The NASAC Science Education Programme (SEP)

Please click on this link to view the NASAC Science and Education Programme (SEP) Working Group Members 2022

The NASAC Science Education Programme (SEP) aims to improve quality of science education in Africa.

It gaurantees a continuous supply of scientists to academies in Africa. Given the significance of education in the development of Africa, NASAC established SEP Focal Points from among its membership constituting of individuals who are actively involved in formulating science policies in their countries.

The focal-points served as the advisory body to the NASAC Board on Science Education matters. The Focal Points worked towards providing country-specific science education case-studies with the aim of making a case for Inquiry Based Science Education (IBSE) considerations in the science curriculum in Africa.

IAP had been the main funder of the NASAC-SEP initiative since its inception. However, under the NASAC-Leopoldina (German National Academy of Sciences) project, there was a focus to re‐invigorate the activities of the SEP Focal Points to enable the eminent experts foster science for future generations in Africa. Through the project, the Focal Points were able to exchange progress reports from their different countries and sub‐regions and they exchanged ideas of how science academies can lobby inquiry‐based science education (IBSE) in their countries. On 27-28 January 2014, the Focal Points held a meeting in Nairobi, Kenya and reviewed SEP activities undertaken thus far, discussed the efficiency of in-country science education activities in relation to collective NASAC work and agreed to undertake a survey on the status of IBSE in Africa.

The term for service for the Focal Point came to an end in 2017. NASAC embarked on re-establish its Science Education Programme Focal Points by renaming it the SEP Working Group (SEP WG). This is because NASAC believes that Science Education is pertinent in economic and social development in as far as sustainable utilization of resources is critical.

The NASAC SEP WG is made up of experts in science education pedagogy and curricula in-country. They will will be involved in NASAC science education initiatives and dialogues that significantly contribute to enhancing how science is taught and learnt in Africa.

African European Academies for Science Education (AEMASE) Programme

NASAC is collaborating with the African European Academies for Science Education (AEMASE) Programme to sensitize decision makers and other partners of educational systems about the urgent need to improve science (STEM) school education across the African-Mediterranean-European region.

This project brings together the 3 regions: African region, the European region and the Mediterranean region. It will be carried out in 3 phases: The Conference, Field Projects, and Science Houses. NASAC is represented in the Steering Committee by the President and the Executive Director and they both attended the Scientific Committee meeting that was held in Paris on 26 September 2016. NASAC has brought in Science Education in the programme and is working on roping in its Science Education experts.

The French Academy of Sciences hosted AEMASE III Conference in October 2017 on the theme: “AEMASE III: A way towards International Centres for Science Teachers”. The event brought together over 100 participants including representatives from NASAC member academies.

The conference was a joint initiative between the French Academy of Sciences and the Benin Academy of Sciences with NASAC being a partner.

The objective of the conference was to launch a project of Intercontinental Network of Houses  for  Science, Centers for  Science Education in Africa, Mediterranean and Europe (CESAME), where teachers and their trainers will interact with scientists for a few  weeks  and  train on investigation, taking advantage  of  rich  international exchanges. Seven centers officially declared their willingness to launch a CÉSAME: that is in South Africa, Benin, Cameroon, Egypt, Italy, Morocco and Tunisia.

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