Government building next generation professionals through STEM education

Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, Minister of Education, says Government is building the next generation of professionals to propel Ghana’s socioeconomic development in modern times through the promotion of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education.

He said STEM education was the future, therefore, any country that wanted to sustain its future through education and youth development needed to adopt the programme.

Dr Adutwum made these remarks when he talked about the importance of STEM education at a STEM Promotion Roadshow at the Accra Senior High School, Accra.

The Promotion Roadshow, which was the first of its kind, is a platform for the Ministry of Information and Ministry of Education together with their partners to showcase the investment Government has made in the rollout of STEM education.

The Minister said the government was changing the phase of education to one that encouraged creativity and innovation among learners.

“We want to shift the focus of our education system from learning by rote to one that encourages creativity and innovation among our students,” he stressed.

He said the government had put up 10 STEM centres that were at various stages of completion, saying seven of them were fully operational and had been included in the Computerised Schools Selection and Placement for the 2023 academic year.

He added it had also established an all-girls STEM Senior High School in the Bosomtwe District of the Ashanti Region and putting up similar ones in other parts of the country.

Dr Adutwum said all those infrastructure rollouts were to build up the interest of the programme in learners and provide the needed environment for effective studies.

He said a key feature of the STEM curriculum was the introduction of learners to a Pre- Engineering programme that prepared them to enroll in engineering courses at the tertiary level regardless of their course of study at the Senior High School (SHS) level.

Thus, any student who had completed SHS and did not study Science, but wished to offer engineering at tertiary would have to enroll on the one-year Pre-Engineering programme to give them a chance to study engineering at the University.

The Pre-Engineering programme comprise traditional science subjects – biology, chemistry, physics and elective mathematics – and basic or pre-engineering studies.

The Minister indicated that the government was committed to promoting the study of STEM from primary schools through Junior High Schools to Senior High School level.