Rebuilding STEAM

Apr 20, 2023 Editorial

Kaieteur News – After a five-year absence the STEAM Fair is back. It is not a moment too soon, considering all of the developments in Guyana that could use the successes of STEAM students to catapult this country to a greater presence in its national businesses.

STEAM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics. All of those components are urgently needed in this country’s rapid push to capitalize on its wealth that comes in different forms. Taken together, it is clear that Guyana needs as many students as it can get in those fields. Scientists to understand more about geology and forestry; engineers to be intimately invested in ouroffshore oil operations. An army of technology oriented,tech savvy, citizens can only be an asset for us, and the more of them the better. A careful pruning with the Arts can add what bolsters the numbers, science, and logic, and gives Guyana a young, vibrant, and educated population to watch over its interests, its national ambitions. The more we have students so engaged, the closer and quicker we can come to grips with our national visions, and fulfilling them.

Science and engineering, and to some extent technology, call for extra prowess in mathematics. This means that the four go together, and with a choice of study and occupations standing before our young and gifted students. We want to see more and more of them and their plans, and to hear them represent what those plans and projects mean. The STEAM Fair is worth its weight in gold, and gives them the necessary timely exposures. An idea is something always worth pursuing, and there could be extraordinary ones that need assistance to liftoff from the ground.

It is our belief at this publication that we desperately need waves upon waves of students focused on one or the other components of STEAM, and being given every encouragement to run with them. Financing would help, plus facilities that bring their visions to fruition, as well as lending a hand with selling their ideas through expos and so forth to attract much needed interest. Therefore, the focus should be on more STEAM minded students being given an early kickstart, and consistent attention every step along the way in their formative years.

Emphasizing and celebrating success in 15 or 20 or 25 subjects at regional examinations have merit. But narrowing the band to the STEAM elements could be of infinite value for students and citizens. Too many subjects can be a distraction, and too much time spent with the highfliers could have the unintended consequence of too little attention to the students who are less gifted. Among that almost ran (for top honors) group, there may be a few gems with visions dancing in their heads that could startle, and lead to the revolutionary.

Parents, students, teachers, administrators and State officials should all bear in mind that some of the biggest names and most talked about lions of Silicon Valley never completed college. Their body of work speaks for them decades later, and with a world cheering the output of their minds. That could be Guyana’s world also, where our less than stellar academically come into their own, when the freedom is given to them to tinker and experiment. What goes into the STEAM Fairs possess some of such ingredients, in that the work of the laboratory, and the little crude workshops in the home, are put on display for others to study and judge.

The coronavirus pandemic held our students in check, plus the environment was, at times, not of the most optimum. Now is the time to make up for lost time, considering that we are losing in so many other ways. The bulk of the people operating and overseeing our patrimony on land and at sea are foreigners. The sooner this dependency is whittled away, the better for us, for then we will be well-positioned to trust fully those of our own placed in strategic positions to learn and grow.

STEAM is about learning and growing with the right things. This is where we must spend money to develop talent, to build bench strength, to put the power of our promise in Guyanese hands.

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