Winners of the 2023 STEMNNOVATION competition organized by the Free Senior High School Secretariat of the Ministry of Education last year left Ghana for Japan last week Saturday.
The five students and an official of the Education Ministry will be out of the country for one-week and while in Japan, they will participate in an international STEM competition, engage their student counterparts in Japan, and share as well as learn new ideas and skills towards their education.
The students comprised of Malinda Josephine Owusuaa Antiri, Salomey Akpene Atsrim-Ferguson and Benedicta Amoah from the Ahafoman Secondary/Technical School, 1st place winners as well as Agordo-Kafui Caleb and Stephen Mills Kofi Asante Ahenkan also from the Wesley Grammar who were the runners up.
Promise of a trip
During the grand finale of the competition held in Accra, the Education Minister, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, pledged that the winners of the competition would be sponsored to travel to Japan as part of its prize.
The trip by the students was in fulfilment of the promise made by Dr Adutwum during the climax of the competition to motivate the students to take keen interest in STEM education as well as the competition.
Farewell messageÂ
Addressing the students before their departure in Accra, a Deputy Director General at the Ghana Education Service, Mr Stephen Owusu, described the feat chalked by the students as very unique.
He explained that the fact that the winners of the competition were from various parts of the country attested to the fact that the nation’s education was on the right trajectory.
The Deputy Director was particularly happy that the winners of the competition were not from the famous schools in the country, adding that with the current state of education in the country, education outcomes in all schools did not matter the location of the school.
Mr Owusu lauded Dr Adutwum for the various interventions he has introduced into the nation’s education space with the view of making students study hard for the development of the right manpower for the nation and the rest of the world.
The Director of Innovation at the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme (NEIP), Mr David Ampofo, pledged to continue supporting the STEMNNOVATION competition to help students unearth their hidden talents and skills towards solving challenges confronting their communities and the nation as a whole.
He also pledged to create an opportunity for the winners to have access to its Innovative Hubs near their schools so they could develop their skills and innovations to enhance their chances of commercialising it for the nation’s benefit.
Background
Three female contestants who represented the Ahafoman SHTS, a mixed school, surprised the whole nation in November last year with an amazing presentation on a project on Flexible Use of Electricity, where they generated electrical power through a locally modified generator and accumulator connected to a solar panel to power a plant-based incubator.
For emerging winners, Ahafoman SHTS took home an amount of GH50,000 cash from the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme (NEIP), a desktop computer donated by Omega Computers, GH20,000 life insurance cover from Glidco Insurance company, medals STEM textbooks while Wesley Grammar SHS received GHS 30,000 cash prize, a laptop and a printer for being second whereas, third-placed Bosomtwe Girls’ had GHS20,000 cash prize, a laptop and a printer.
Apart from the trip to Japan, the three girls from the Ahafoman were also promised a four-year full scholarship in any Engineering University in Ghana after their secondary education.
By Felix Baidoo
