National Robotics/STEM competition launched
The Ministry of Education in collaboration with the Ghana Education Service (GES) and the Coderina Edtech has launched the fifth edition of the National Robotics/STEM competition.
The competition, which is set to take place in March this year, will involve 70 schools from both the private and public institutions across the country.
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On the theme: “The future of transport”, this year’s competition will have students engaged in finding solutions to how transportation and distribution of goods and services will be made easier, more accessible and much cheaper in the country and the world at large.
Competition
The Chairman of the board of trustees for Coderina Edtech, Mr Femi Niyi, noted that technology, STEM education and robotics were very important, especially in today’s world.
He mentioned that the competition would instill the required knowledge and skills that the youth in the country would need for the future.
Mr Niyi also added that the competition would bring out the problems with regard to transportation in society and how those problems could be solved using science and innovation.
He stated that if it could be done in the foreign countries, Ghanaian children could also be equipped to do same.
“This is not about robots only. It is a journey, it is a rock to blast a thousand shillings for the girl-child and a road map to engineering and landing the first Ghanaian on the moon,” he said.
21st Century Skills
The Deputy Minister in charge of General Education, Rev. John Ntim Fordjour, in his speech, recalled the amazing performance of the students at the competition last year.
He noted that he was impressed by how children as young as five years old could explain with enthusiasm and competence the various projects that were presented.
That, he said, gave him the confidence that indeed the country had the human resource that were ready to embrace technology to make the country better.
He added that it was an indication that the country was ready to embrace the new way of preparing the people, especially the youth, for the future which would be technology-based.
The study of technology and STEM, he said, would equip the Ghanaian to be able to compete globally.
“We are no longer going to be educating the people for educating sake and making them literate, but we want them to have the 21st Century skills that would equip them with the confidence and the right skills to compete with every other child in the world,” the deputy minister said.
He added that the country was blessed with talented and gifted young people and that was why the government was in strong support of shifting the education system to focus on technology and STEM education.
Robotics training
As part of preparations towards the competition, the participating schools are currently undergoing training sessions on how to use robotic equipment to solve problems that would be identified.
Two schools, Accra Girls Senior High School and Kpong Methodist Junior High School were presented with some robotic kits on behalf of the schools to aid them in designing solutions to the various problems that would be identified.