This year’s Ghana’s representatives for the World Robotics Championships for high schools to be held in Dubai between October 22 and 27, have held a demonstration session at the Ministry of Education to show what they will be exhibiting at the competition.
The competitors, with their chaperon, were also at the ministry to inform the sector Minister, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, of their forthcoming trip to Dubai to represent the country.
Ghana’s team
Ghana is being represented at the competition for the high school category by a team made up of three girls from the Wesley Girls High School and one girl from Mamfe Methodist Girls Senior High School.
The team is made up of Jessica Mawuenam Dellason, Venessa Achiaa Nyame and Berrelyn Appiah all from Wesley Girls and Emmanuella Appiah from the Mamfe Methodist Girls.
The team has built a robot that can be used to clear the seashores of plastic wastes which have engulfed the sea and the beaches for recycling.
Promote girls in STEM
Commenting after watching the demonstration, Dr Opoku Prempeh advised the team to sharpen and fine-tune the finishing of their project.
He was excited that the project was in line with government’s determination to promote girls in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
Dr Opoku Prempeh said the project was pure technology using information, communication and technology (ICT).
He was happy that the project the team was going to exhibit had practical relevance and sought to demonstrate that it was possible a machine, such as what the girls were demonstrating, could be used to clear the beaches of filth.
Promoting STEM
Dr Opoku Prempeh said the government was committed to promoting STEM centres where robotics, ICT, chemistry and physics would be popularised through the construction of those centres.
He said the government had a policy of promoting the study of STEM among students and encouraging more girls to take up the STEM to enable the country to attain the 60-40 quota for boys-girls.
Dr Opoku Prempeh was convinced that it was even possible for the country to attain 50-50 quota for boys and girls in the STEM-related subjects.
He said the universities in the country needed to revise their qualification requirement to include hands-on practical works such as what the team had been able to develop.
The Chaperon and the STEM Co-ordinator for the Mamfe Methodist Girls, Mr Ben Amoako, was confident that the project the team had embarked on had practical meaning to the contemporary world.