Spreading Astronomy Education through Africa.

Abstract

Although Astronomy has been an important vehicle for effectively passing a wide range of scientific knowledge, teaching the basic skills of scientific reasoning, and for communicating the excitement of science to the public, its inclusion in the teaching curricula of most institutions of higher learning in Africa is rare. This is partly due to the fact that astronomy appears to be only good at fascinating people but not providing paid jobs. It is also due to the lack of trained instructors, teaching materials, and a clear vision of the role of astronomy and basic space science within the broader context of education in the physical and applied sciences. In this paper we survey some of the problems bedeviling the spread of astronomy in Africa and discuss some interdisciplinary traditional weather indicators. These indicators have been used over the years to monitor the appearance of constellations. For example, orions are closely intertwined with cultures of some ethnic African societies and could be incorporated in the standard astronomy curriculum as away of making the subject more `home grown' and to be able to reach out to the wider populace in popularizing astronomy and basic sciences. We also discuss some of the other measures that ought to be taken to effectively create an enabling environment for sustainable teaching and spread of astronomy through Africa.