Ghanaian programme aims to boost interest in engineering

Ghana’s Ministry of Education aims to boost science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education in the country through a one-year pre-engineering programme for 300 senior high school students without a science background.

Dr Eric Nkansah, the ministry’s director of tertiary education, said the programme is in line with the government’s Education Strategic Plan for 2018 to 2030 that aims to increase the number of students admitted to the universities to read STEM-related courses.

The programme has started with two universities, the University of Mines and Technology, Tarkwa, which has 200 of the students, and the Pentecost University, with the remaining 100.

Speaking at the Stakeholder Forum on Diaspora Engagement in Higher Education in Ghana, hosted by the Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Program and the Association of African Universities (AAU), Nkansah said the main idea behind the pilot programme is to have 60% of students enrolled for STEM studies and the remainder in the humanities by 2030. The current distribution is the opposite of this.

The forum was held to share practices, challenges and opportunities related to engagement between the Ghanaian university hosts and the African academic diaspora. It also explored the role of the diaspora in resource mobilisation for Ghanaian higher education as well as identifying ways to integrate diaspora partnerships in strengthening the higher education sector in Ghana.

Dedicated STEM schools

Nkansah said the pilot programme is rolled out parallel with the construction of schools built purposely to teach STEM-related subjects at senior high schools. Ten of these schools have already been commissioned.

He said the government is keen on increasing the gross enrolment ratio in tertiary institutions to 40%. “There has been a slight increase to 20% this year over the previous figure of 18.84%, but we cannot be content with this because, if you want to transform a country, it must be through education,” he added.

“The government is also planning to construct five new universities in the newly created five regions as part of the expansion of the tertiary education programme, and these will focus more on STEM education,” Nkansah said.

He said Africa had been just a “passenger” in the first three industrial revolutions, but that the continent “must be a player” in the Fourth Industrial Revolution that it is currently witnessing. To achieve this, most of the continent’s students should be directed towards STEM studies.

Claudia Frittelli, a programme officer of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, said the Diasporan Fellowship programme has selected 528 fellows from the diaspora since 2014. Of these, 83 came to Ghana to work with twenty universities that included the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, the University of Ghana, University of Education, Winneba, and University of Cape Coast.

The Secretary General of the AAU, Olusola Oyewole, said that, as a former vice-chancellor, he understands the many benefits the diaspora brings to host universities in Africa. He is, therefore, pleased that most higher-education institutions across the continent have started setting up a Diaspora Trust Fund to support their diasporan programmes.

Oyewole said it was about time universities saw the diasporan programme as “virtual faculty members” of their universities to reap the benefits of their experience.

This news report was updated on 31 May 2022.