AbstractHow relevant is science and technology education to the needs of developing countries? Having been copied from advanced countries the systems tend to concentrate on isolated pure science subjects and Uttle is done to relate these to immediate socio-economic problems. Science education of the 1980s in developing countries should give greater emphasis to technology, local scientific achievement, social problems and the intellectual ability to solve them, and the diversification of education and training to improve the productivity of young people. This implies new approaches to the teaching of S&T providing a challenge to both educators and policy-makers.