In Ghana today, a lot is being done to make Science, Technology, Arts, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEAM) education an important area of Ghana’s educational system.
Recently, at a STEAM festival organized by the University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR), the Minister of Education, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum spoke on how government is creating an enabling environment by building STEAM Senior High Schools and Universities to encourage and equip more Ghanaian students to be STEAM professionals.
The progress of this type of education is often being discussed and the recent one was at the 146th Speech and Prize Giving Day of the Mfantsipim School.
Read: Mfantsipim School to equip teachers with requisite skills to produce graduates fit for the 4IR
In his address as the Guest Speaker of the event, the Director of the Ghana Infectious Disease Center, Dr. Joseph Oliver-Commey, emphasized the need to improve STEAM education in Ghana.
He noted that “This is an interesting topic to me. We need to improve (steam) science, technology, arts, engineering, and mathematics education. Traditionally, the arts and sciences are often thought of as opposites. Our current education system has and continues to view them as separate entities where students pick and stick to a side of the fence by senior high school education.”
He however said the recent conscious sustained drift towards stem education cannot pass for a mere paradigm shift to all intents and purposes.
He continued saying “It is inextricably linked to the recognition of the inadequacies of current educational trend vis-a-vi the fourth industrial revolution. There is so much noise being made about Stem schools. I am not against these schools. However, they should not be promoted as if that was the ‘B’ all through our development crisis”
Dr. Joseph Oliver-Commey says in this fourth industrial revolution, to adequately prepare the country’s future workforce, the acronym STEAM must be prioritized as that education also has the potential of enhancing existing career paths.
“The steam approach looks to provide an education comprising of science and art, including the humanities, the social sciences, the music, visual arts, and new media to provide an interdisciplinary education necessary for creative thinking and the future. A curriculum woven from science and arts will enhance existing career paths, such as more effective public engagement tools by our engineers.”
Source: Rosemond Asmah/ATLFMNEWS
