President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has cut sod for the construction of a Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Academy in the country.
The GH₵32 million facility, which forms part of 20 STEM centres to be established in the country, is expected to help churn out more engineering graduates in the country on annual basis.
The Accra STEM Academy, expected to be completed within a space of 24 months, will have a 4-storey classroom block with ancillary facilities and external works.
The facility will have 28 classrooms, 14 science laboratories with prep rooms and a library.
The administrative block will have an office for the headmaster or headmistress and two offices for their assistants.
It will also have accounts office, book store, staff common room and a reception area.
A sickbay, a multipurpose hall (1,500 sitting capacity), a canteen, 26 washrooms and a store comprises the ancillary space in the facility.
At the sod-cutting ceremony, President Akufo-Addo said, “Ghana should be producing at least 30,000 engineers annually for the desired level socio-economic transformation” and added that the 20 STEM centres and 10 model STEM senior high schools across the country were at various stages of completion.
The institutions and centres, according to the President, would be fitted with state of the art equipment and laboratories to facilitate the teaching and learning, in addition to artificial intelligence and robotics.
President Akufo-Addo was optimistic that the initiatives would, to a large extent, improve STEM education to support the socio-economic development of the country.
The Minister for Education, Yaw Adu-Twum, said the ministry was repositioning the entire educational system to produce assertive and empowered Ghanaian students to contribute to the development of the country
The skills under the new educational system are critical thinking, problem- solving, creativity, communication, collaboration, data literacy and digital literacy and computer science, the minister said.
He said STEM education would include the fusion of advances in artificial intelligence (Al), robotics, the Internet of Things (loT), 3D printing, genetic engineering, quantum computing, and other technologies.
BY YAW KYEI
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