The Ministry of Education wants all stakeholders to support the strategic policy of placing more emphasis on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education in the country.
According to the Ministry, embracing and adapting STEM education at all levels is a viable option to provide alternative sources of boosting the struggling economy and reducing graduate youth unemployment in the country.
Addressing a gathering at the Ghana Science Olympiad for Secondary Education Improvement Project (SEIP) held in Akropong where 118 students from schools in the Volta, Eastern, and Greater Accra Regions took part, the Eastern Regional Director of Education, Mrs. Margaret Nsiah Asamoah, said that “STEM education is the catalyst needed to build the nation to the status we all desire.”
“At this era of Ghana’s development where the nation is faced with a number of economic issues, it has become necessary to seek alternative sources of boosting the economy and STEM has been identified as a viable option. It is a catalyst required to build our nation to the status we desire because the expected results from STEM education are assuring because countries such as the US, Australia, and the likes have shown us that investing in STEM is the right way to go”.
Currently, about 15 percent of students in the country are concentrating on science and mathematics-related programs, a situation described as worrying.
Professor Sakina Acquah from the University of Education, Winneba, who reiterated the importance of STEM education to help produce more entrepreneurs, called on the government to fully commit by providing the needed infrastructure and logistics.
