Encourage Students To Pursue STEM Based Courses Education Minister Dr Adutwun

The Education Minister, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, has urged Headmasters of Senior High, Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) schools to encourage students to take a keen interest in the study of STEM-based courses.

This, he said could be done by engaging the services of various institutions in the organization of a seminar, fairs and career days in their schools to expose the students to prospects available in the STEM sector after school to attract their interest into those areas.

Dr Adutwum made this call when he addressed Heads of all Senior High Schools in Kumasi on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday 
The meeting was aimed at discussing issues relating to the new academic calendar for the year and how best to improve their performance during the period.

Again the meeting was to discuss various strategies needed to bring about improvement in the performance of schools during the year and also share best practices and experiences by some heads.

'With the current state of development across the globe, there is the need for all to think about ways of being part of the global economy by training the critical minds that can compete in the global market'.

 He said.
Merger of schools
The Education Minister who is a career educationist hinted of plans by the government to merge some schools with low enrolment within the same community or localities to help curb the huge administrative cost in maintaining those schools.

Again he said that effort was being made to help provide boarding facilities to some schools which critically need them so they could perform efficiently.

Commendation
Dr Adutwum lauded headmasters in the country for their roles in the provision of high-quality education to students across the country describing them as very critical stakeholders in the nation's transformation agenda.

Intervention programmes
Dr Adutwum urged the Heads to liaise with their governing councils to introduce intervention programmes in their schools for students with challenges in English Language and Mathematics to enable them to catch up with their peers without such challenges.

He explained that students with weaknesses in English language proficiency and mathematics could be given additional tuition in those areas for about one year so they would be able to improve on their performances in those subject areas.

Mr Anthony Boateng, Deputy Director-General of the Ghana Education Service, charged heads to work hard to help curb the issue of sexual harassment and other forms of harassment to students by being proactive and not reactive.

He cautioned that any student, teacher or headmaster caught in any sexual harassment would be made to face the full rigours of the laws in the country.

Mr Boateng again urged the Heads to desist from shielding any teacher or student who indulged in the sexual harassment since it was criminal and rather allows them to be reported to the Police to investigate such cases.
'To ensure that we avoid all forms of attacks and other forms of challenges, lets us all learn to abide by rules and regulations as heads so we win the trust of society all the time'. He said.

The Deputy Director-General cautioned headmasters to desist from hiding behind Parents Teachers Association to collect money from students and rather wanted parents themselves to do their money collection and decide what to use it for. 
He explained that PTA's can be operated independently on their own without attaching it to the activities or using students as a means of collecting money since it was very wrong.
Mr Boateng charged the heads not to engage the services of any staff without an official letter since they could be charged for indulging in illegality and could lead to prosecution. 

For their part the President of Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools ( CHASS) Alhaji Yakubu A B Abubakar also headmaster of T I Hamadiya SHS disclosed we will find a lot Head of schools engage in issues of food when heads should rather concentrate to see how they can get quality outcome as far as education is a concern at their school level.

Alhaji Yakubu is hoping the authorities will listen to them and moving forward such wrongs will not happen again, to ensure that before schools will reopen, food and monies are brought to schools, then they can take off smoothly.

He confirmed that CHASS don't have serious issues with curriculum and textbooks, rather is at the basic levels that they are handling those issues.

On issues raised during their meeting with the education minister Dr Osei Yaw Adutwun, he said among the important issues were furniture.

" Some schools can't even receive form One's if they are not supplied with furniture before the form One's come to school, we have made aware of that, bare it in the various dormitories are also in short supply, we have drawn their attention to that" Alhaji Yakubu A B Abubakar hinted.

He again mentioned benches and tables in their dining halls as part of their challenges and added previously parents were helping them to get the furniture but with the inception of the flagship free SHS, it is now the burden on the government to provide all the needed supply and they have made the government aware that they should ensure that the schools get those things or else the form One's may come to school and they will not have furniture to sit on it in the classrooms, they will be in dormitories and will not have beds to sleep on which they don't want such situation to happen.

According to him, Minister Dr Adutwun has assured them that they are working to ensure that what they have mentioned are brought to the schools before April 4, 2022, when the form ones will be expected in schools.

Source: Isaac Nsiah Foster