The Academy, when completed, will have state-of-the-art facilities, including a 1,500-seater multi-purpose hall, a four-story, 28-unit classroom block, 14 science laboratories, a sickbay, an administrative area, a staff common room, a library, washrooms, and a canteen.
Courses to be Offered
Courses to be offered include robotics and artificial intelligence, creativity, communication, collaboration and computer science, and the Academy would admit learners from kindergarten to senior high school (SHS).
Location
The Academy shall be located on the premises of the National Vocational Training Institute (NVTI) at East Legon in Accra, the academy, which will have a population of 2,000 at a time, is expected to be completed within 24 months.
Aside from the academies, the government has also commenced the development of 20 STEM centres and 10 model STEM SHSs across the country which is at various stages of completion, with some of them becoming operational this year.
In his address, President Akufo-Addo said the Accra STEM Academy would be a place where learners in junior high school (JHS) would be provided with the option of studying basic engineering, manufacturing and global studies to help them make informed decisions on their preferred programmes of choice at the senior high school level.
“The Accra STEM Academy is a Ghana project and we can thus be assured that Ghana’s young people are going to acquire skills that will put them at par with their peers anywhere in the world,” he added.
“I am excited that as a fully inclusive school, students with learning difficulties, as well as gifted and talented students, will find a suitable home.” He said.
The President said it was his expectation that parents and students would take advantage of the opportunity provided by the facility and enrol in the STEM Academy.
“The government is committed to accelerating STEM education in Ghana to train students with cutting-edge 21st-century skills. God willing, within the next 24 months we’ll all be back here to witness the inauguration of our STEM Academy,” he concluded.
Ghana, he said, had been blessed with the best and brightest on the continent who could help unleash the country’s potential and make it an active participant in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
The President explained that in accordance with the government’s educational strategic plan targeted at increasing Ghana’s Science and Humanities ratio from the current 40 to 60 to the desired 60 to 40 in favour of Science, it was repositioning the educational system on STEM education.
Miniter’s remarks
In his remarks, the Minister for Education, Hon. Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, MP, stated that the Akufo-Addo government had commenced an educational renaissance in Africa because the vision of the President was that if education was not transformed, it could not play its rightful role of boosting the economy.
“In the fourth Industrial Revolution, our students should be learning in spaces and other things that will change their minds; therefore, the academy is the beginning of this transformation agenda,” the minister said.
The Member of Parliament (MP) for Ayawaso West Wuogon, Ms Lydia Seyram Alhassan, expressed appreciation to the President for work to begin on the construction of the academy, saying that although the constituency was considered one of the elite communities in the country, it had no SHS, hence her elation.
