ONE of the crises in the education system of a developing economy such as Nigeria, is the growing disparity between education development and technology advancement for nation building.

Ideally, when a child is sent to school, it is expected that the experience garnered will make a difference in his life for positive impact on his immediate environment.

For this to happen, the school must endow the child with technological skills which will in turn make him a  better citizen in the society.  In essence, technology must grow with education. In Nigeria, the reverse is the case as education and technology are not mutually exclusive.

In other words, the effect of technology on economy is such that it must enhance operating efficiency of manufacturers, farmers and in domestic life.

However, Seed of Life College, Onireke, Ibadan, one of the fastest growing private secondary schools in Oyo State in terms of academic and moral standard has invented a Glass Screen Solar dryer, an alternative source of power for rural dwellers.  Members of Junior Engineers Technician Science Club of the school were the brains behind the research project.

According to the Coordinator of the project, Mr Olakunle Awoyemi, the principal of the school, Nigeria must explore the advantage of its abundant solar energy to develop the country. He said that the conception of the project came, following the college’s observation that Nigerians’ food drying methods are not hygienic.

“In this regard, the college sought  for  various ways    to contribute its quota to food production and preservation.  We noted with dismay that Nigerian farmers lack the technology for drying their products such as grains, tea, pepper, fish, melon, maize and some other farm products.

They often dried  their grains in the sun at the roadside, on the rock and sand, exposing them to lizards, flies and some other dangerous insects before taking them to the market to sell poisoned food to innocent individuals.  Through these poor drying processes, many people had caught some ailments and diseases. Worse still, some individuals  have also cultivated the culture of unhygienic food drying process in their houses.

“However, the prevention is better than cure health formula necessitated the college   to embark on the project,  the use of alternative source of power — solar dryer,” he said.

While explaining how the drying technology was constructed, the students in charge of the project, Adebola  Owolabi Zion, Taiwo Gbadeyanka and Daniel Oluwole, said, ‘’sunshine has been in use since time immemorial for the purpose of drying clothes, crops and so on in Africa,  they always pray  that rain would not fall until the drying process is concluded.

“Since these crops are usually spread on the ground, or in exposed  containers, they are usually contaminated by air-borne dust and insects.

Animals and birds also do interfere with the process.  So, to minimise contamination and also to maximise the effectiveness of solar energy, Glass screen dryer” (solar dryer) was developed.

Construction
The Glass screen dryer consists of four parts; the box, the covers (glass screen) the tray and the insulator.

The glass screen dryer is made up of wooden material constructed in form of a box, the body of  the box is perforated and painted outside with silver colour and with black colour inside.  The box is covered at the top with a class screen.  Inside the box, there is a removable tray made up of wire mesh on which the agricultural produce can be laid.

Operation mechanism
The glass screen dryer operates in a quite simple way.  The dryer covers the glass screen and allow solar radiation to enter the box as it  prevents heat from being emitted from the inside.

The trapped heat  is used for removing moisture from the materials to be dried and air comes into the box through the ventilation holes to carry away the moisture.  Inside the box ,there is a conventional transfer of heat and the heat cannot easily be emitted because of the internal part of the box is painted black.  This technology can be used to dry cocoa, beans, groundnuts, tea, meat, fish and so on. Similarly it can be used domestically. Glass screen dryer is a very hygienic and neat way of drying farm produces.

“It is very economical and very fast.  Rain does not disturb it,’’ the students concluded, promising that the college is ready to assist interested families to build  the glass screen dryer for them.  They also called on the government to invest in this project for its commercial use by farmers, saying that it will go a long way to improve food preservation in the country.