Factors Associated with Interest in Science of West African Students in Washington, D.C.

Abstract

Every year witnesses a continuous influx of students from the English-speaking West African countries to colleges and universities in the United States of America. A large group of these students enroll in various fields of study at a consortium of five universities in Washington, D.C.-American, Catholic, Georgetown, George Washington, and Howard. A combined statistics of foreign student enrollments obtained by the writer from the Offices of International Student Services within the consortium indicated that slightly more than 900 English-speaking West African students were studying at these five universities in 1974. Like all developing nations, Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone see education as playing the key role in the development of manpower for their economies, their technological developments, and their political stabilities. The science curriculum and methods of teaching which grew up in the past arose out of the need to "Europeanize" the natives. In Weaver's2 words, "it was an education for colonials, and was quite suited for the training of messengers, servants, clerks, and minor echelon civil servants. At its best, this educational system was only able to train a few West Africans to enter into professional careers; at its worst it stifled quite a few of them." Shortage of qualified scientists, technologists, engineers, science teachers, and technicians is considered one of the most