The Ministry of Education has given the strongest indication that it will roll out a full-time Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) academy to imprint in children, at an early stage, the habit of using science to solve problems.

According to the ministry, the academy will be built across the country to help in the teaching of STEM.

The STEM academy policy is to train students who are not only readers but problem-solvers as well as critical thinkers. 

The ministry says already, there are some 10 senior secondary science schools in the Bosomtwi district of the Ashanti Region, among others, across the country. 

The full-time STEM academy will be a four-storey building fitted with 14 science laboratories, a sick bay among others.

The government intends to build 28 of such ultra-modern STEM facilities in the Greater Accra Region.

Mr Kwesi Kwarteng, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Ministry of Education, made this revelation in an interview with Kwame Obeng Sarkodie, host of Ghana Yensom on Accra 100.5 FM on Monday, 10 January 2022.

“The STEM academy programme will be similar to a full-time football academy where the children are taught everything football at the early stage,” he said.

He explained that STEM academies will also accommodate children from the kindergarten and primary levels all the way to the senior high level where they will be taught everything science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

“At the STEM academy, the children will be taught robotics, software development, Artificial Intelligence (AI), ethical hacking among others,” he stated.

He noted that the STEM programme, if fully operationalised, will lead to the country frowning on the importation of software for programming from the likes of Microsoft, as the STEM Academy students will be in a position to develop some of this software, as part of the introduction of the academy.  

According to him, the STEM programme forms part of Ghana’s twenty-first-century schools for educational reforms championed by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo through sector minister Yaw Osei Adutwum. 

He said going forward, STEM education will be 50 per cent with other sectors of education taking the remaining 50 per cent.

He added that education now will be STEM-driven to ensure quality education at all levels.