The range and quality of skills available are key pillars of economic transformation and national development. Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education is core to the workforce development. In the future, a higher and higher percentage of jobs will require core STEM skills.

"An estimated 2.5 million new engineers and technicians are required in sub-Saharan Africa to achieve the Millennium Development Goals of improved access to clean water and sanitation."
Irina Bokova, UNESCO Director-General

STEM teaches students how to be clinically objective rather than subjective. It develops skills of observation, logic, planning, execution, presentation, evaluation, report writing, design, problem solving and critical thinking among others.

STEM focuses on what can be learned from the physical environment around us. STEM helps explain the why and how of what happens around us.

STEM learning thus provides the scaffolding for other aspects of learning and creativity such as poetry, music, visual and performing arts and athletic endeavors.

Nevertheless, in many nations, the education system in place was developed for a world that no longer exists. The essential core aspects of the system have remained unchanged:

• Learning takes place in silos.
• There is little cross-subject fertilization.
• The real-world relevance of various topics is paid only lip-service, not because teachers don’t want to, but because:
  • it is not rewarded in the examination process – there is the inherent pressure to “finish the syllabus” or “complete the scheme of work”; and
  • the teachers were not taught that way themselves