The Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, last Saturday cut the sod for the construction of another 21st Century Junior High School (JHS) at Essikado in the Western region.
The school project which is one of the ten state of the art Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) JHS will be dedicated to the teaching and learning of STEM and was expected to be completed within ten months.
Upon completion, the new JHS storey building will have ten classrooms, five laboratories and other facilities to boost the teaching and learning of STEM-related courses.
The facility christened “21st century lower secondary school” is set to train the students to prepare to compete globally by having skills such as critical thinking, communication skills, problem-solving acumen among others to help move the country forward.
The Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, said the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo-led government was not just interested in being the President but was working towards improving the lives of the people as well as transforming the nation through education.
He explained that the current industrial revolution called for the development of science-based courses which stood the chance of improving the nation’s industrialization bid.
Again he said, “Our quest is to build a strong foundation system to produce that critical mass with the requisite knowledge in critical thinking, problem-solving, data, digitalization and computer literacy among others.
The Deputy Minister for Education, Rev. John Ntim Fordjour, said the huge investment being made in the education sector by the Government attested to the fact that education was a critical tool in the socio-economic transformation of a country.
He stated that the strengthening of STEM education at the lower level of our education system was geared towards consolidating the JHS sector which happened to be the weakest link in the country’s education sector following the 1987 education reforms.
Rev. Ntim Fordjour assured the people that the government would continue to initiate various programmes which stood the chance of bringing much change to the people and the nation as a whole.
He reminded the people that the government was poised in spreading development projects across the country irrespective of ethnicity, political affiliation, religion or other social standings.
The Member of Parliament for Essikado-Ketan, Mr Joe Ghartey, was full of praise to the government for the project which would go a long way to bring development to the people in diverse ways.
