President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo says the goal of his government is to position the country as a leader in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education and innovation on the continent.
To this end, he said Ghana was partnering with the Belgian government on a groundbreaking project which would include e-learning solutions, high-end multimedia laboratories, and a comprehensive e-learning class management system that would derevolutionise STEM education in Ghana.
“With 35 out of 92 labs ready for installation and 105 functional upgradable, the impact of this will be profound,” he emphasised.
President Akufo-Addo said this when he addressed 61st Conference of the Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS) in Accra, yesterday.
The conference was on the theme; ‘61 years of shaping second cycle education in Ghana: The challenges and successes in contemporary times,’ and was attended by over 800 heads of government assisted schools across the country.
President Akufo-Addo said STEM education had become the cornerstone of progress and innovation in the modern world, thus it was critical to equip the youth with critical skills needed to navigate an increasingly technology-driven global landscape.
He said his government’s unwavering commitment to education; the country had attained significant strides in the areas of access, quality and relevance, making Ghana a beacon of progress in the region.
President Akufo-Addo said his government had initiated a total of 1,270 infrastructure interventions as part of measures to improve the standards of early childhood education in the country.
He said the schools under the project boasted of cutting-edge technology such as SMART boards to enhance interactive learning experiences of the children at that level.
“I am pleased to report that a substantial number of these projects are nearing completion, and by early 2024, they will be fully operational,” he said.
He said apart from the infrastructure intervention in early childhood education, government had invested significantly in teachers, equipping them with modern methodologies tailored for early childhood development.
“We have provided age appropriate learning materials, play equipment, and resources for interactive and engaging learning experiences,” he stressed.
At the primary and junior high school level, he said government was focused on a substantial number of interventions in improving and empowering teachers.
This, he said was being done through extensive training and capacity building, adding that “we have ensured that the consistent provision of learning materials and embarked on targeted infrastructure upgrades to create conducive learning environments.
President Akufo-Addo said the implementation of the National Standardised Test for primaries two and four pupils was a pivotal step towards assessing and improving learning outcomes.
“It is gratifying to note that proficiency in reading for primary two students has seen a significant improvement, from two per cent in 2015 to 38 per cent in 2022,” he added.
On his part, the National President of CHASS, Reverend Stephen Owusu Sekyere expressed the conference’s gratitude to the government for the support in providing quality education in the country.
He however, appealed to the president to allow the schools themselves to procure their own food stuffs for the feeding of the children. Rev. Sekyere said the erratic supply of food by the National Buffer Stock had become a thorny issue in the feeding of their school children.
He said it would be more appreciated if the government would release the funds to respective schools for them to procure at their individual levels.
BY CLIFF EKUFUL
