Past students of the Kumasi Academy Senior High School have commissioned an ultramodern science laboratory to promote STEM education at the school.
After a nine-year journey, the laboratory, equipped with scientific apparatus and modern IT infrastructure, would serve the over 1,000 students pursuing general science at the school.
National President of Kumasi Academy Alumni Association, Dr. Kwabena Dapaah-Siakwan, says the edifice seeks to enhance the academic performance of students and also encourage more females to pursue the sciences.
It was a gratifying moment for students of Kumasi Academy SHS to have a feel of an ultramodern science laboratory.
The facility, compartmentalized into the physics, biology and chemistry laboratories, would afford students to have hands-on scientific demonstrations.
The edifice also has installed in every laboratory an electronic board with a science library for easy and effective teaching and learning of the sciences.
Speaking at the commissioning of the lab, Minister of Education, Dr. Yaw Adu-Twum, reiterated the government’s efforts and commitment to reform Ghana’s educational sector to serve contemporary industrial needs.
“The government is constructing Accra STEM Academy to train students from kindergarten to high school with 21st-century skills in problem solving, creativity, communication, collaboration, data and digital literacy, and computing,” he said.
Dr. Adu-Twum revealed the government has initiated a one-year pre-engineering program for non-science students hoping to pursue a career in engineering.
He says the initiative would advance Ghana’s industrialization agenda.
“Pre-engineering programme is a game-changer that will open doors to many non-science secondary school graduates, especially visual arts graduates who have desire and posses the ability and creative mind to be trained as the innovative and creative engineers to drive industrialization in Ghana.
“The programme is currently being piloted by the University of Mines and Technology, Tarkwa and Pentecost University, Accra. This ultramodern science laboratory will play a strategic role to support government’s vision of flipping our science: humanities ratio from existing 40:60 to 60:40,” he said.
Named as the Akunini Science Laboratory, the one-storey building was fully funded by some old students of the school.
The edifice worth GHC9.6 million has a robotics facility to keep students abreast with modern technological advancements.
National President of the Kumasi Academy Alumni Association, Dr Kwabena Dapaah-Siakwan, says the facility is expected to improve the performance of students at both WASSCE and the national science and maths competition.
“This wasn’t constructed for our alma mater for fun or just to make noise that we have the biggest science lab. The past students want to see a massive improvement in the WASSCE results of our students in the sciences especially and also expect improved performance in the NSMQ because we have provided everything to them,” he said.