The 2024 edition of the STEMNNOVATION competition has been launched with a call on industry and other stakeholders to partner with the Education Ministry to commercialise the innovations from the competition.

The competition which is in its third year and organized by the Free Senior High School Secretariat (FSHSS) of the Education Ministry in collaboration with the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Plan (NEIP) provides a platform for the students to showcase STEM projects they had developed to solve societal problems.

Apart from helping the students to exhibit their talents through exploration, it also helps them to learn how to work as a team through collaboration as they also learn how to appreciate other students’ talents.

Launching the competition in Accra, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, lauded the leadership of the FSHS Secretariat and the Ghana Education Service for their roles in the successful organization of the competition.

“STEMNNOVATION is the way to go. It is not good enough for these young men and women to invent things that are not commercialised so we are appealing to the industry to partner with MOE to ensure that we bring some of these innovations to life especially when there is originality,” he said.

The Minister of Education urged people to disabuse their minds of the erroneous impression that inventions only come from the universities, adding that results from the past two STEMNNOVATION competitions have proved that inventions can come from second-cycle levels as well.

Project Topics

Each of the participating second-cycle institutions will be expected to submit a project topic in one of the following areas: Digital Technology, Environmental Sustainability, Food Sovereignty and Sustainable Energy.

Dr Adutwum reiterated that the results and innovations made by the various competitors in the past two events attested to the fact that the innovations brought into the nation’s education sector were yielding the expected results.

Commendation to teachers

He therefore praised teachers at the various levels of the nation’s education for their dedication and commitment towards the development of the nation through education.

The education minister stated again that the winners of the two past competitions have proven that the names of educational institutions alone were not enough to impact the knowledge of students but hard work and the preparedness of the students to study irrespective of where the school was located.

The Osu Mantse, Nortse Nii Nortey Owuo IV, who chaired the launching of the event praised Dr Adutwum and other stakeholders for the measures put in place to ensure that the nation was not left behind in the 21st century developmental drive.

He described as precise the various innovations brought on board by the government to ensure that the country does not become a bystander in the ongoing IT development that was shaping the economies of nations as well as the empowerment of the global economy.