BY ELLISON VAHI
THREE Japanese JICA volunteers who served as teachers at schools in Western and Malaita provinces have voiced out issues they believe are affecting science education in the Solomon Islands compared to Japan.
They have identified three major issues.
The issues are; majority of schools are lacking of school facilities such as a science room or a science laboratory in order to do scientific experiments in front of students – this is crucial for further understanding.
Teachers cannot execute an experiment swiftly due to the lack of important scientific equipment (eg beaker, flask, measuring cylinder and, etc) and materials for inducing chemical reactions (eg ammonia, BTB solution, sodium hydroxide and etc).
Teachers need to have more training in order to do experiments in school.
“We believe that the above three issues needs urgent consideration to solve as soon as possible in order to provide a better education for students in Solomon Islands. Therefore, we want to share our ideas and skills to tackle these problems by using products surrounding us in which, it does not require extra funds to install new facilities,” they voiced.
During the World Teachers Day 2018 at Auki they also held a science show as part of trying to improve science education in the country.
They said that it was a great opportunity for all science teachers in Solomon Islands, to observe and learn from.
“We showed them more than 10 different experiments, including physics and chemistry.
“We hope the participants had got some ideas and skills that they can share with their colleagues in their respective schools,” they voiced.
In the meantime, the three Japanese teachers said that they also have created their Facebook page in which they can share information and videos on the event and said that they believe that those materials will be very useful for teachers and students in the Solomon Islands.
The three Japanese science teachers names are Kenta Maruyama (Mr) – Gizo CHS, Western province), Akiyuki Ota (Mr) – Choiseul-bay PSS, Choiseul province, and Yoshiko Sugiyama (Ms)-Aligegeo PSS, Malaita province.
