The 3rd Edition of the Energy Commission’s Senior High Schools’ (SHSs) Renewable Energy Challenge for public second-cycle institutions was launched in Accra yesterday.
The theme for the Challenge which commenced in 2019 is “Clean Cooking and Food Processing Using Renewal Technologies.”
During the competition which would be organised on zonal to regional basis until the grand finale in Accra in October, SHSs across the country, would be expected to improve on the existing cookstoves and fuels, food processing and preservation technologies to become the ultimate winner.
The aim of the challenge, being organised by the Energy Commission (EC) in collaboration with the Ghana Education Service (GES), with support from the GIZ and Clean Cooking Alliance, is to nurture brilliant science-oriented students to solve national problems.
Delivering the keynote address, the Second Lady, Mrs Samira Bawumia, said it was high time the nation found ways of improving its reliance on biomass fuel.
She said the current situation where solid biomass fuels outnumbered the other source of fuel was not ideal, since such situation led to air pollution and other green house effects.
Mrs Bawumia said even the toils of gathering firewood for cooking in the countryside was associated with so many problems, such as limiting access to education of the girl-child, apart from sometimes being a victim of snakebites.
She said it was, therefore, laudable that both GES and EC had found a common ground to inculcate in the students in the early stages innovative knowledge in science, adding that the outcome of their feats must not be swept under, but given the necessary attention by research institutions for sustainability.
Mr Oscar Amonoo-Neizer, Executive Secretary of Energy Commission in a welcome address said the Commission, as part of its mandate, did not only promote renewable energy, but also to help enrich the curriculum of the various educational institutions in the country.
He said it was for these mandate that the Commission, which would celebrate its 25th anniversary this year, decided to roll out the challenge which had proven to be educative and innovative.
Mr Amonoo-Neizer said the competition that started as a pilot project had been so successful that it had been extended to cover all the regions.
Dr Kwabena Tandoh, Deputy-Director General of the Ghana Education Service said in providing quality education for Ghanaians of school-going age, the service had its focus on promoting Science Technical Engineering Mathematics (STEM) schools at all levels of learning.
He said the GES had thus constructed many STEM schools recently, hoping to construct the Basic STEM schools to cater for the first-cycle institutions to cover all the educational levels.
Dr Tandoh said it was in view of this that the GES would want to be associated with the competition to promote innovative research to solve real-life problems in Ghana in the near future.