The Deputy Minister of Education in charge of pre-tertiary education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum has charged Ghanaians to create an enabling environment to unleash the full potentials of children.
According to him, the total transformation of the country lay on the citizenry to provide needed conducive atmosphere to transform kids to better individuals.
Speaking at the Universal Concept Mental Arithmetic System (UCMAS) Congratulatory Ceremony in Accra on Friday, the minister stated that initiatives that had a tendency to boost mental and creative ability of children should be a hallmark to drive forward the developmental agenda.
He indicated that UCMAS was useful and underscored the need for school proprietors to entail it in their curricula.
“UCMAS provides well rounded education to develop children’s concentration, creative thinking memory power, logical abilities and boost their confidence,” he said.
Dr Adutwum noted that UCMAS had trained lots of pupils and developed mental capacity of kids, stressing that parent should enrol their wards in it as the programme has transformed the country’s educational landscape.
He observed that through the initiative the phobia among pupils in mathematics and science was gradually taking the back seat and expressed the need to eliminate it totally among kids.
Quoting Albert Einstein, a famous scientist and thinker, he said “when both right and left hemisphere of our brain are combined and used effectively together, the results could be astonishing,” hence the need for the mental quiz to enable pupils excel in their school subjects.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of UCMAS Ghana Limited, Mr Roger Ohemeng congratulated the 28 kids who lifted high the flag of the country on the international front by winning the 2019 international UCMAS quiz held in Cambodia.
He explained that Ghana competed with other 42 countries which included Malaysia, Cambodia, Canada, Kenya, and Egypt among others with Ghana part of the first 10 which won the quiz.
Mr Ohemeng indicated that UCMAS started in September 2007 with a sole vision to impact and transforms the country’s educational system by training kids to have mental prowess.
Developing the abilities of pupils, Mr Ohemeng said was paramount in nation building and expressed his outfit’s commitment to continue improving speed and accuracy of children in math.
The Director of UCMAS West Africa, Mr Girish Gurbani stated that the introduction of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) in education has UCMAS centred in it and encouraged educational stakeholders to embrace it for kids to attain greater height in their education.
He also commended teachers who trained the children and thanked parents who availed their wards to partake in the competition.
BY JOYCELINE NATALLY CUDJOE
