405 



4 



nation's development were increasingly inundated with teaching activity, 

 which deterred the more difficult and costly research process. 



Even in the best of circumstances, research on science and technology 

 for development has been undercut by a) the economic crisis of the entire 

 continent, b) the resultant shortage of foreign exchange, and c) the 

 institutional upheavals affecting many governments and even whole 

 societies. These crises have undercut the capacity and production of 

 science on the continent in a variety of ways: (1) Due to the economic and 

 foreign exchange crisis, universities and research institutes sometimes 

 are at the end of the queue for foreign currencies to purchase scientific 

 equipment, books and directories, scientific journals and technical data 

 reports, and even ordinary but absolutely essential equipment such as 

 refrigerators, fluorescent lights, and calculators. Some laboratories 

 founder for lack of portable generators to provide insurance against power 

 failures and the resultant loss of refrigeration or incubation of 

 cultures, serums, and samples. (2) The inability to complete excellent 

 research damages the general academic quality of articles and reports, 

 thereby lowering the standards of publications, peer review norms, and 

 even the quality of the production of scholars and scientists. (3) The 

 large class size in lecture rooms and laboratories and the high ratio of 

 students to staff decrease the time available to scientists to complete 

 research. (4) Because of lack of funds, senior research staff, and 

 adequate libraries, the universities have only developed token graduate 

 programs if any at all. This lack of graduate seminars and a cadre of 

 advanced students deprives the faculty and their laboratories of the 

 intellectual context that is productive of advanced research in university 

 settings. (5) The lack of funding for teaching assistants decreases the 



