The Minister of Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, has appealed to traditional leaders in the country to take interest in Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education and serve as lead promoters.
He said STEM remains the foundation of any country’s development and Ghana could not be the exception.
To this end he said the government had taken the necessary steps to make STEM the new paradigm of the country’s education.
“Our chiefs must lead the charge to let our people know what Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) is about. We need you to add your voice to the STEM agenda to make it a national agenda,” he said.
DrAdutwum made the call at the launch of the maiden edition of the “Stemnovation” in Accra yesterday.
The competition, an innovation of the Free Senior High School Secretariat aims at providing opportunity for students to design innovative projects based on three areas-recycling, solar energy and artificial intelligence and find smart solutions to the problem in a particular community.
Dr Adutwum said the government would soon cut sod for the construction of 10 new STEM educational centres.
On his part the newly installed Osu Mantse, Nii Nortey Owuo Notsei IV, commended government for the bold initiative in the area of STEM.
He said the world had gotten to a stage where no country could progress without focusing on STEM education, adding that “If we really want to develop as a country then we must pay attention to this area and make it the cornerstone of our educational development.”
Nii Owuo pledged his support to the Ministry to ensure that the government’s agenda was realised.
On his part, Reverend John NtimFordjour, the Deputy Minister of Education explained that “stemnovation” was a national Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) based project competition that challenges Senior High Technical Schools and TVETs to innovate for socio-economic development.
The Deputy Minister said, the vision for the competition was to see young scientists able to find practical solutions to local and global problems and cultivate innovative potential of young Ghanaians through international partnerships and provide a platform for their ideas and projects.
The competition was to shed more light on the practical nature of the Government’s vision of demystifying STEM education.
“There are many ideas and innovations that we have inculcated in our learners at the Free SHS and TVET level and this is the time for them to practise what they have learnt through the competition,” he added
BY CLIFF EKUFUL