The National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA) on Friday called on universities across the country to consider including Astronomy studies in their curricula for technological advancement.

Bonaventure Okere, director of the Centre for Basic Space Science and Astronomy (CBSSA), an activity centre of NASRDA, made the call in an interview in Abuja.

According to Mr Okere, few universities offer astronomy studies, and students who graduate from the course have no option but to seek employment outside the country.

He said NASRDA was engaging with schools across the country to encourage them to include astronomy courses in their curriculum.

“We are engaging Nigerian universities to see how they can include astronomy in their curriculum, because now, we have a handful of schools offering astronomy course. We need to invest in astronomy because investing in astronomy means investing in space science technology, and any nation that invests in astronomy is keying into technology development.

“If we have universities that do astronomy when our students graduate, they will have where to teach. Some of them, when they finish, they leave the country and cause brain drain in that area, but the moment universities introduce it, there will be jobs and economic development,” he said.

According to Mr Okere, space science technology is not only dependent on launching satellites into space, but comprises the study of objects in space, hence, astronomy.

Mr Okere said, “Every object in space has an address and some of these addresses are invisible to human eyes and where we cannot reach. To build equipment that can reach such objects that are billions of kilometres away requires technological advancement and investment in astronomy.

“In Nigeria, we assume space science technology is all about satellite launching, which is looking down, we are not looking up which is where you can develop your technology.

“If our country has to key into technology advancement like in other climes, that is why we need to introduce astronomy course in our universities and it will create jobs.”

(NAN)