M Mangena: African Regional conference on engineering education

26 September 2006

UNESCO representatives
Conference organisers
University professors
Educators from Africa and the World
Ladies and gentlemen

The 1998 United Nation Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation
(UNESCO) pronouncement that the second half of the 20th century would go down
in the history of higher education as the period which saw the widening gap,
with respect to access and resources to higher learning and research, between
developed and developing countries, was prompted by the scepticism of some
western scholars, who questioned the commitment of African governments and
their universities' ability to develop and advance new knowledge. In response,
the World Bank (1998) immediately issued advice to the developing countries to
institute developmental policies to narrow this gap.

The United Nations announcement of the Millennium Development Goals to
member states is the first giant step towards the implementation of plans to
narrow the gap between developing and developed countries, and engineering
education is expected to play a major role in this plan.

In 1996, the Development Assistance Committee of the Organisation for
Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) adopted the Shaping of the 21st
Century Strategy: The Contribution of Development Cooperation. This initiative
included the definition of International Development, and a number of
developmental targets that could lead to the fulfilment of international
development goals emerged from several United Nations' summits held during the
1990s.

These international development targets correlate closely with the
Millennium Development Goals proclaimed in September 2000 at the United Nations
Millennium Summit. In 2001 the United Nations Secretariat, together with the
International Monetary Fund, OECD and the World Bank, agreed on eight main
development goals, 18 sub-targets and 48 corresponding indicators to measure
the results of development co-operation.

The eight main development goals became the Millennium Development Goals and
they are:

* to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
* to achieve universal primary education
* to promote gender equality and empower women
* to reduce child mortality
* to improve maternal health
* to combat HIV and AIDS, malaria and other diseases
* to ensure environmental sustainability
* to develop a global partnership for development.

The principal goal of the United Nations Millennium Declaration is the
eradication of extreme poverty and hunger. This led to the definition of the
Poverty Reduction Strategy papers, elaborated by donor agencies together with
partner countries.

Medium-Term Expenditure Plans were developed to support partner countries'
budgets on a regular basis, if adopted initiatives by the partner, governments
were linked to development priorities by the respective donors.

Part of the concept of the poverty reduction strategies was their
cross-sectoral and bottom-up character. Implementation was to take place as
decentralised as possible. An emphasis on these cross-cutting priorities was
intended to strengthen the efforts to reach the Millennium Development Goals
and Targets.

Science, engineering and technology are the products of education, and hence
prime stimulators of national and human development. Under-investment in these
areas was identified as the cause for declining or stagnating scientific and
technological growth. It is only through the advancement of science,
engineering and technology that any country can develop.

In developed countries, which constitute only 21% of the world population, 3
out of every 1000 people are researchers and new knowledge generators. They
claim 84% of research articles published and 97% research patents registered.
By contrast, in developing countries, which constitute 79% of the world
population, only 3 out of every 10 000 people are researchers, account for only
16% of research articles published, and 3% research patents registered.
Developed or industrialised nations generate 60 - 70% of their economic growth
through scientific, engineering and technological knowledge discoveries, while
the developing countries generate only 10%.

On a per capita basis, developed countries have ten times more research and
development scientists and technicians than developing countries. On average,
developing countries devote about 0,9% of their gross domestic product to
research and development, whilst developed countries devote about 2,4%.
Therefore, in terms of global population size, developing countries contribute
very little to world development. The situation is worse in Africa as Brazil,
China and India claim the largest portions of the developing countries'
research outputs.

The research output of developing countries is unlikely to increase as our
potential research outputs and knowledge discoveries are stolen from us at
infancy stages through various schemes used by developed countries. Researchers
from the developed countries are scattered in their thousands all over
developing countries collecting data required for their research projects. This
is in contrast with the policies of the leading world research institutes that
have vowed never to collaborate with any African institution, South Africa
included, until Africa elevates herself to a knowledge generation society.
Africa needs to elevate herself into a knowledge generation society as nobody,
including developed nations, will do so on her behalf.

Since 1987, South Africa's research output has been declining by 25% every
five years, from 2,5% of the world's research output down to the present 0,49%,
and there has been no improvement. The number of full-time researchers has
declined over the past ten years while young, black and female potential
researchers are not attracted to the field because of the lack of black
mentors. Out of 1 612 rated researchers at South African public universities,
blacks are a tiny minority.

Engineering education is of prime importance to the economic advancement of
all countries, but especially so in Africa, with our low number of engineers
per head of population. Government is committed to supporting the development
of scarce skills and maintaining the numbers of skilled professionals such as
artisans, information technology technicians and engineers at optimal
levels.

By definition, engineering is the process of converting science or knowledge
into finished products or systems. If we all associate ourselves with this
definition, we should be asking ourselves whether a product or system required
for a specific function in a specific country, can be exported to another
country in order to generate profits to sustain continued production of the
same product while developing the economy.

We should particularly ask ourselves whether our African engineering
products are exported to developed countries for the purpose of enabling our
people to earn the hard currency, or whether existing technologies are still
relevant for Africa. I strongly urge delegates to discuss these questions in
depth with honesty.

As the department tasked with the responsibility to promote world-class
technologies and infrastructure, we wish to acknowledge the sterling work
undertaken by a number of South Africans and institutions to sustain this
country on the developmental path of industrialised nations. A number of South
African universities, research institutes and professional bodies and public
and private companies have made us proud in the engineering education world
stage. Engineering education institutions of the African region must ensure
that Africa brings together a unified engineering education curriculum of the
world through UNESCO.

We have reached a stage where the separate and inferior engineering
education curriculum for the developing world must be done away with. In these
times of internationalisation and mobility, we need to ensure the international
competitiveness of the African engineering education. Our curriculum must
ensure that the type of an engineer Africa produces is the same as that
produced by developed and industrialised nations. The curriculum should provide
conditions for the student engineer to:

"Acquire knowledge and skills in the design of products, processes and
working environments, taking into account the abilities and needs of human
beings as well as society's objectives as regards social conditions, economy of
resources, environment and economy."

Engineers identify the need for and plan, develop, produce, put into
operation, utilise and maintain new products, systems or services, as well as
close down, recycle or destroy them when they are no longer of use. Through
research, our engineers should be able to solve complex problems independently,
innovatively and with discernment. We also expect them to continuously follow,
utilise and contribute to development in their chosen fields of
engineering.

The engineering curriculum must ensure the acquisition of the following
attributes by the student engineer:

* knowledge in mathematics and natural sciences necessary for the chosen
field
* good knowledge in the selected engineering field and some specialised
knowledge in some part of the field
* the ability to analyse and critically assess various technical solutions from
a holistic perspective
* insight into economic, social and environmental conditions and into the needs
of co-workers, customers and society
* the ability to model, simulate, predict and assess events, mathematically,
with computer assistance or experimentally
* after a few years of work experience, the ability to realise products,
systems, processes, goods or services throughout their entire life cycle
* the ability to lead and co-operate in projects with different constellations
of people
* the ability to communicate with other people, with the assistance of
different media and languages
* the ability to utilise the knowledge in other countries and cultures
* preparedness for life-long learning to be able to adapt to changing
conditions of work
* the ability to take responsibility for the impact that engineering activities
may have on the environment and on the health and safety of people.

The recently published Report No 2006: 31 R released by the Swedish
Government on Evaluation of Engineering Education programmes at Swedish
universities and institutions of higher education, confirmed the impact made by
the new conceive-design-implement-operate (CDIO) theory on engineering
education programmes at Chalmers University, Linkoping University and The Royal
Institute of Technology in Stockholm. Other institutions of higher engineering
education have been advised by the government of Sweden to implement the new
theory. The conceive-design-implement-operate theory was approved as a common
engineering education vision for Africa at a UNESCO engineering education
seminar for Africa held in Algeria in 2003. This led to the endorsement by the
South African government of the CDIO Institute for Africa that is now chairing
the UNESCO Science Commission of South Africa.

African engineering education delegates at this conference should ensure
that a UNESCO regional body is established that will lead towards the
establishment of an African Engineering Education Institute for the creation of
an engineer for Africa who can compete equally with the rest of the world.

Thank you for your attention.

Issued by: Department of Trade and Industry
26 September 2006
Source: Department of Trade and Industry (http://www.dti.gov.za)