Kumasi-Ghana, Nov. 25, GNA – The government will soon start the construction of a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) model junior high school for the Asem Cluster of Schools in the Kumasi metropolis.
The school would have eleven classrooms, six science laboratories, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) laboratory, library, canteen, courtyard, playground, landscaping, and car park.
Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, Minister of Education, announced this during a surprise visit to the cluster of schools on Friday.
The visit by the Minister, who was accompanied by Mr Samuel Pyne, MCE of Kumasi, was to assess the school’s environment, the conditions of the pupils and interact with teachers.
Dr Adutwum, expressed worry over the depopulation of the schools within the cluster, which currently has a combined population of a little over 200 pupils.
“The school has been depopulated; we do not have students here even though we have the full complement of teachers.
Meanwhile, other schools within Kumasi are congested, something obviously needs to be done,” he told the media after the visit.
“I envisage Asem as a learning hub, a place where the minds of Kumasi will be nurtured, as it used to be in the past,” he assured
The Minister said the government would consider the introduction of a bus system to convey school children from their homes as part of efforts to attract more children to return to the school, which was in an inner city, for quality education.
Dr Adutwum said the goal of the STEM education was to focus, nurture and develop talents in science, engineering, mathematics, and technology, adding that, the model school would help attract the best and brightest children from across the Kumasi metropolitan area and beyond.
The Ministry, he said would also rehabilitate the old school structures and retool them to provide conducive atmosphere for teaching and learning.
On teachers’ welfare, Dr Adutwum indicated that, the Ministry was seriously looking at the issues of promotion, staff identities and ensuring that what was due teachers were paid in a timely manner.
The Asem cluster of Schools, is among the oldest schools in the Kumasi metropolis.
Its foundation stone was laid by Sir Fredrick Gordon Guggisberg in April 1926.
