EDITORIAL - Wanted: More

scientists

Highly competitive countries invest heavily in innovation and encourage

their youths to pursue careers in science and technology. In the past
decades, however, enrollment in S&T courses in the Philippines has
been underwhelming. This could be due to the weakness of basic
education in science and mathematics – a problem that the
government began seriously addressing only in recent years.

A related problem has been highlighted in a study prepared by the

Department of Science and Technology’s Science Education Institute.
The DOST-SEI study, which used data collected from 1990 to 2015 by
the Philippine Statistics Authority, showed that most graduates of S&T
courses ended up in non-S&T jobs, or work outside their field of study.

The data from the Women in Science study showed that only 3.7 million
of 10 million holders of bachelor’s degrees were S&T graduates. And
out of the 3.7 million, only 24 percent engaged in S&T occupations or
activities. A significant number, mostly in healthcare such as nurses,
worked overseas. The top three occupational clusters in the country for
S&T are nursing and midwifery, engineering and related fields, and
other health professions.

The DOST is proposing more scholarship slots for less popular S&T
fields, including physics, chemistry, mathematics and statistics. In this
age of pervasive disinformation using social media, emphasis should
also be given on promoting courses related to digital technology.

In the globalized economy, innovation plays a critical role in national

competitiveness. If the government wants to nurture a culture of
scientific and technological innovation, however, interest in S&T must
be nurtured from a young age. The nation needs teachers with
sufficient training not only in imparting knowledge on S&T but also in
inspiring sustained interest in the fields of S&T and mathematics.

Innovation requires not only education but also an ecosystem that

nurtures S&T. Scientists need access to funding, facilities, knowledge
and ease in securing patents as well as assistance in production and
marketing to make S&T enterprises profitable. Research and
development can take years and require considerable funds and other
resources.

In the COVID pandemic, virus testing received a significant boost from

the RT-PCR swab test developed by a local company, Manila HealthTek
 Inc., headed by Filipino microbiologist and infectious disease doctor
Raul Destura. S&T has a significant impact on many other aspects of
life, and governments that invest in it always reap rich rewards.
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