Akyem-Swedru, (E/R) Aug.27, GNA- The Minister of Education and Sports, Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo, has tasked the country's scientists to use their scientific and technological knowledge to promote the tapping of solar energy to generate electricity cheaply.

He said the good thing about solar-generated electricity was that it could be installed anywhere there was sunshine. The call was contained in a speech read on his behalf by the Birim District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr Frank Busumtwi, at the closing ceremony of a zonal Science, Technology and Mathematics Education (STME) clinic held at Akyem-Swedru Secondary School.

More than 120 participants drawn from the first and second cycle institutions in the Birim South district attended the week-long programme which was on the theme: "STME for wealth creation, physics as a tool."

Mr. Osafo-Maafo said the country could no longer afford to depend heavily on non-renewable energy resources, which were not only harmful to the environment but also expensive to generate.

"Dependency on solar power will, in no doubt, reduce dependency on foreign donors," he said.

The District Director of Education, Mrs Stella Nanor, urged the students to abstain from premarital sex, drug abuse and other anti-social behaviours that could expose them to the AIDS pandemic. She expressed the hope that the STME programme would continue to receive support from the assembly as well as the communities to ensure that the youth would receive the kind of science education that would benefit the country.

Prizes were presented to students who excelled at the clinic.