President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has cut the sod for the construction of GHC32 million Accra Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Academy, the first of its kind in Ghana.
The school will comprise 28 classrooms, fitted with the state-of-the-art equipment and science laboratories, artificial intelligence and robotic centres, 1, 500 capacity multi-purpose hall, among others with an initial intake of about 2,000 students.
Additionally, the government is constructing 20 STEM centres and 10 model STEM senior high schools across the regions which are at various stages of completion.
As part of the education strategic plan to increase science to humanities ratio from the current “40 to 60” to the desired “60 to 40” in favour of science, the government is repositioning the country’s educational system, anchored on STEM education.
Speaking at the sod-cutting ceremony on Wednesday, President Akufo-Addo said the government was prioritising STEM education to integrate relevant academic content with experiences that to nurture the skills and mind-sets of the youth.
He said the government attached equal importance to the teaching of STEM at all levels of the educational system, and the construction of the science Academy was in recognition of the centrality of STEM’s capability in the country’s deployment of science and technology towards nation development.
The world, President Akufo-Addo explained, was driven by technology, energy, agriculture, medicine and health, clean air and water, transportation and sanitation, the use and management of natural resources, and that the successful exploitation of all these sectors depended on the application of science and technology.
While Ghana, with a population of a little over 30 million was producing some 6, 000 engineering regiments annually, Vietnam, a population of about 97 million, was producing some 100,000 engineering regiments a year.
“It is obvious that, to be part of this modern world, science and technology must be present at every stage of the development process,” he intimated.
A country’s evolution, the President stated, was the function of its ability to understand, adapt, produce and commercialised scientific and technological knowledge in ways appropriate to its culture, aspirations and level of development.
In spite being one of the leading centres, in guaranteeing quality education on the content, Ghana’s education sector, President Akufo-Addo averred, still required significant transformation to compete with the best in the world.
For instance, the country needs to increase the Growth Tertiary Enrolment Ratio (GTER) from the current ratio of 18 .4 percent to 40 percent by 2030
“I am fully aware, since the 1987 educational reform, our country has provided a ‘door of no return’ where high school students are boxed into a career pathway, and are not allowed to change their programme of study.”
The country’s current secondary six-year system being operationalised as two disconnect three-year system, continued to be a major hindrance to the growth of Ghana’s educational system.
Ghana, the President indicated, had been blessed with the best and brightest in the continent, “who can help unleash our potential and make us active participants in the fourth industrial revolution.”
He said time had come, for the country to reorient her educational system to equip students, with the right technological skills set, needed to succeed in this 21st century.
The Education Minister, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum expressed commitment to the transformation agenda of the educational sector, adding that “in the fourth industrial revelation, our students should be learning in the space and learning things that would change their minds to transform the country.”
“The first Science Academy in Ghana is going to begin here by President Akufo-Addo with a vision that, for Africa to compete, we need to have the great minds starting from kindergarten focusing on science, technology, engineering and mathematics,” he said.
Rex Mainoo Yeboah, ISD
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