When individuals refuse to let science education die
The Ghana Education Service has had its fair share of challenges in the past; from uncertainty about how long students should stay in the classroom to lack of teaching materials.
Every now and then, there is a teachers’ strike as if to remind us of how important they are to the nation’s success and there is still the case of Ghana being ranked last for quality of Science and Maths education. To top it all off, WASSCE pass rates in science and maths have steadily dropped to below 50 per cent over the last five years and we eagerly await analysis of the BECE results this year.
Truth is, when it comes to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), you would be forgiven for believing it is all doom and gloom. Unbeknown to you is the fact that in the midst of all the doom and gloom are a select pocket of persons working to equip students with everything they need to excel in the STEM fields.
These initiatives are driven by individuals with a passion who want to give to students what they never had. Notable among these is the MISE foundation, which trains students to become mathematicians who can compete on a global stage. Two of their students, Jessica and Isabelle Quaye, who are siblings, won the Best Students in West Africa and Worldwide first place in the Cambridge Add Maths respectively.
The MISE foundation is not alone, read on to be introduced to four other relatively young programmes that continue to strengthen students in STEM at no expense to the students involved.
Science Book Tour by GhScientific
Just as not all the fingers are made equal, so are all science books not made equal. Where traditional science-themed books are known for being text heavy, there is a whole world of science-themed books out there designed specifically to spark the imagination and provide ideas for hands-on practical experiments.
The Science Book Tour by GhScientific seeks to get as many of these books as possible into the hands of basic school pupils with the hope of spreading the excitement that comes with discovering science for themselves. Starting with schools in the Greater Accra and Eastern regions, the Book Tour also gives pupils the opportunity to interact with science professionals in a bid to encourage more pupils to pursue further studies in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths.
Experience days by STEM Centre Ghana
How do you solve the problem of a lack of resources to run practical science lessons at the basic level? One solution will be to have a centrally located common space where students can gather and be challenged while partaking in practical science experiments. This is exactly what the STEM centre does.
Led by Silas Anku, a former science teacher who understands too well the problems faced by science teachers, the STEM centre offers basic school pupils the needed practical lessons to complement efforts of teachers in their various schools. Show up at the Museum of Science and Technology on the right day and you will see many young pupils in lab coats testing and proving science.
Free Coding Lessons with the Phoenix Project
The phoenix project is an innovative programme by Code Ghana and the ISpace foundation which brings together children to build and share their ideas in Science,
Technology, Engineering and Arts. Led by Tina Appiah, the Phoenix Project, which is in its maiden year, seeks to work closely with 300 children each year to build and share their ideas surrounding STEM, while also learning along the way.
So far this year, the Phoenix Project has worked with 90 students between 7-16 years. Activities for the younger age group included an introduction to basic programming principles and using the Scratch visual programming language to build simple games, interactive stories and animations. The older age group, on the other hand, also got introduced to web designing using HTML + CSS.
The Ghana Code Club wants to inspire children to pursue other digital-making activities in addition to learning about computational thinking, problem solving, planning, designing and collaboration.
Design and innovative projects from Innovate Ghana
Working with tertiary education students from the Western, Central and Greater Accra regions, Innovate Ghana guides students to do exactly what their name implies; innovate. Since 2013, Innovate Ghana has been designing competitions to develop problem solvers and critical thinkers who see problems as opportunities, and who pursue innovative solutions to national development problems.
Led by Freda Yawson, students are coached and given the opportunity to develop critical STEM skills needed for the manufacturing and engineering sectors. For the first time this year, junior high school students were also given the chance to participate. Based on the innovative projects produced, it is clear that JHS students also want to be change makers and if engaged early, there is no limit to what they can do.
The above is far from an exhaustive list. Notable mentions include the Practical Education Network which recently finished training 1,000 teachers in the Greater Accra Region in practical hands-on approaches to science education and Dext Technology which just distributed free science sets which are made in Ghana to rural schools at Nsoatre (Brong Ahafo Region).
Now if you still believe the future is bleak, you now know there is some hope because there are individuals with a passion for STEM who refuse to let Nkrumah's dream die. Together, they are changing the status quo and aren't going anywhere until the job is done.