The maiden edition of the Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) promotion road show was yesterday launched at the Accra High School in Accra.
The road show which is being organised by the Ministry of Information in collaboration with the Ministry of Education forms part of number of activities to showcase and allow the entire country to have a deeper understanding of what is being done.
It is also to create the opportunity for parents and all stakeholders within the education value chain to have a deeper understanding of STEM and Science Technology Engineering Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) agenda.
Launching the show, the Minister of Information, Mr Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, said one of the instruments that determine how far a country could go globally was the quality of its human resource.
He said human capital development was a matter that was of grave concern to this government, stressing that “In Ghana, the governments of Ghana and in particular the Akufo-Addo administration believes in investing in human capital development.”
Mr Nkrumah said the government did not only believe in investing in human capital in general but specifically paying attention to a number of sub-sectors like STEM and STEAM.
He said a lot of work had gone on not just in Accra High School but across many schools in the country both existing Senior High Schools and new ones.
On his part the Minister of Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum said the road show was to enable the good people of Ghana to see the investment the government was making into the future of the country.
He said President was making a lot of investment into the education of the children in order to provide a brighter future for the country.
Dr Adutwum said the whole concept of STEM was to offer the youth an opportunity into the fourth industrial revolution.
He noted that the government continued to invest in education by constructing ten brand new STEM schools and also upgrading about 20 existing senior high schools into STEM schools.
He said the new STEM schools constructed were novel opportunity to bring about the transformation of the country, stressing that “The President of the Republic after assuming office in 2017 fulfilled a major campaign promise that he wanted all Ghanaian youth to have the opportunity for secondary education.”
The Minister said since the time of independence in 1957, the poor had been deprived the opportunity because they didn’t have the money.
He said the FSHS policy dealt with the access question but the government was mindful of the issue of quality of teaching and learning and then relevance and the government was focused on the last two.
BY CLIFF EKUFUL
