Former GES Boss Rallies Support For Science And Technology

Government's efforts to push the Science and Technology agenda in basic and Senior High Schools have receieved comendation from the former Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES).

According to Mr. Michael Nsowah, the government's continuous dedication and commitment to supporting Science and Technology in schools is in the right direction.

Mr. Nsowah is therefore urging Ghanaians to support the agenda to promote Science and Technology, especially among Basic and Senior High students to encourage innovation that would leapfrog national development.

He said it was very much the responsibility of the citizenry to help the Government to mobilise and utilise all available resources to empower the children in a significant way, with the requisite skills they required to be successful.

Mr Nsowah was addressing the first Ghana Science Olympiad Competition, at Gomoa Fetteh, in the Central Region, organised for 244 Senior High School students from 122 schools in underserved districts.

A statement copied to the Ghana News Agency by the Science Education Unit of the GES, said Mr Nsowah, who chaired the event, emphasised that the sustainable development of a nation depended on the high quality of its Science and Technology education, thus Ghana needed to focus more in that area.

He commended the Science Education Unit for putting up an excellent competition for the schools.

St Augustine's Senior High School in Bogoso and Ekumfi T. I. Ahmadiyya Senior High School won the overall best schools award.

They went home with a giant trophy, scientific books and a fully installed DSTV Decoder with one year free subscription.

Enoch Ahu from Kinbu Senior High School emerged the Best Student in Theory and Objectives and received a Tablet, Science Books, a plaque and a fully installed DSTV Decoder with access to educational content.

Kinbu Senior High School won the Best School in Practical.

In all, eight students had plaques, whilst four of them were given Samsung Galaxy Tablets with the three best schools being awarded with trophies.

The task of the competition consisted of critical thinking objectives, problem- based theory and practical questions from Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Mathematics.

The theory and objective tests were done on individual basis, whilst the practical was done in groups of two (school-based).

The best 30 in the general contest were awarded with 10 Gold medals, 10 Silver medals and 10 Bronze medals.

Mr Andrews Kwaning, the Head of the Science Education Unit, explained that the competition provided the platform for the students to work together to solve problems of interdisciplinary content and relevance.

It tested their knowledge in some key thematic areas in Maths and Science, and encouraged critical thinking and creativity, among others.

He thanked the sponsors, including Multichoice and Uni-Jay for their laudable support.

Professor Eric Magnus Wilmot, the Provost of the College of Education Studies, University of Cape Coast, who addressed the event as the Guest Speaker, urged the Government to reconsider its stance against the use of mobile phones in Senior High Schools.

He said mobile phone usage could be properly regulated to advance academic work of students with regard to conducting research.

He explained that there are more positives to the use of the mobile phone than the negatives; hence the urgent need to lift the ban.

---GNA