Over 150 Junior High Schools in the Northern region are benefiting from the basic schools computerization project which is part of government’s efforts to encourage the study of science and mathematics in schools.
Under the project, each beneficiary school is being supplied with laptop computers to encourage the youth to undertake research at the basic level and help find solutions to the communities problems.
Mr Moses Bukari Mabengba, Northern Regional Minister, said this in a speech read for him at the third Regional science, technology and mathematics innovation (STMIE) camp, organized by the Ghana Education Service in Tamale on Saturday.
The programme was under the theme: “Gender equality in STMIE, a driving force for rapid economic development in Ghana”.
Mr Mabengba said since the STMIE was introduced in 1987 as a means of bridging the gender gap that had existed in the field of science and technology and to demystify the notion that science was a difficult subject and the preserve of only a few gifted people.
He said “today the programme embraces many students as a wider national campaign aimed at developing a culture of science and technology among the Ghanaian citizenry”.
The Regional Minister said science and technology was important in the development of every nation and in the eradication of poverty, saying “no nation can succeed without a consciously developed technological and scientific workforce”.
He urged the district assemblies, corporate bodies and NGOs to continue to support and sponsor the STMIE clinics to enable the schools to produce future scientist to solve the nation’s problems.
Mrs Elizabeth De-Souza, Northern Regional Director of the Ghana Education Service (GES) noted that socio-cultural limitations had inhibited the performance of girls in the study of science and mathematics.
She said although the introduction of the STMIE clinics had encouraged more girls to take to the study of science and mathematics, it was not enough and urged all stakeholders in education to find more innovative ways to improve upon the performance.
She also called on teachers to make the study of the two subjects friendly, while admonishing students to use the mobile phone and the internet to enhance their learning and not for negative activities.**
