President Akufo-Addo being briefed by Samuel Antwi (middle), architect of the project. Picture by Gifty Ama Lawson
PRESIDENT AKUFO-Addo yesterday cut the sod for work to commence on a GH¢32 million Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Academy in Accra.
The project is expected to be replicated across the country with the setting up of 20 STEM centres and 10 model STEM senior high schools across the country.
With a population of 30.8 million people, President Akufo-Addo expects that Ghana should be able to churn out 30,000 engineering graduates annually with a strong focus on STEM.
Currently, the country produces 6,000 engineering graduates annually, a number the President said was not sufficient for the anticipated development targets.
“By the same measure, Ghana should be producing at least 30,000 engineers annually for the desired level socio-economic transformation,” he added.
Government has so far commenced the development of 20 STEM centres and 10 model STEM senior high schools across the country.
At various stages of completion, some of such schools are expected to be operationalised this year.
These institutions and centres will be fitted with state-of-the-art equipment and laboratories to facilitate STEM education, including artificial intelligence and robotics.
Such initiatives, the President believes, will help improve Ghana’s numbers in terms of the production of graduates with STEM backgrounds.
The Accra STEM Academy project is expected to be completed within a space of 24 months.
Minister for Education, Yaw Adu-Twum, said as part of his ministry’s vision of re-imagining education in Ghana, it was repositioning the entire system to produce a critical mass of assertive and empowered Ghanaian students with the essential skills for socio-economic transformation.
Such skills, he said, will include critical thinking, problem solving, creativity, communication, collaboration, data literacy and digital literacy and computer science, which have been drawn from the broad pillars of foundational literacy, competencies and skills of the 21st century.
STEM education in Ghana, he said, will also include the fusion of advances in artificial intelligence (Al), robotics, the Internet of Things (loT), 3D printing, genetic engineering, quantum computing, and other technologies.
The yet-to-be-built Accra STEM Academy will comprise of a four-storey classroom block with ancillary facilities and external works.
For its academic space, 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 an accounts office, book store, staff common room and a reception area.
The ancillary space in the facility comprises a sickbay, a multipurpose hall (1,500 sitting capacity), a canteen, 26 washrooms and a store.
The external works to be carried out are a car park, as well as hard and soft landscaping.
BY Charles Takyi-Boadu