Vivo Energy Ghana, marketers and distributors of Shell-branded products and services, has signed 500 students onto the eCampus learning platform to encourage them to explore e-learning options to boost traditional classroom- and textbook-learning.

Out of the 500 students, 300 were females and 200 were males, and the step was to encourage more females to venture into the study of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and related subjects at the higher levels of education.

The ‘eCampus’ is an application that enables students to learn, practise and do research on digital gadgets like mobile phones and computers.

Vivo Energy disclosed the support on Friday, in partnership with the African Business Centre for Developing Education (ABCDE), Vokacom, and eCampus at the commemoration of the International Day of Education with students from Achimota, Armed Forces, St. Thomas Aquinas, Accra Girls’ and PRESEC Legon Senior High Schools in Accra.

The theme: “Leaning for People, Planet, Prosperity and Peace,” aimed at examining the many ways learning could empower people, protect the planet, build shared prosperity and foster peace.

Ben Hassan Ouattara, the Managing Director of Vivo Energy Ghana, in a speech read on his behalf at the commemoration, said, according to UNICEF, 258 million children and youth still do not attend school, and 617 million children and adolescents cannot read and do basic math.

Moreover, less than 40 per cent of girls in Sub-Saharan Africa complete lower secondary school and some four million children and youth refugees are out of school.

The figures, he said, were worrying, therefore Vivo Energy Ghana with its partners was pleased to celebrate the day with a special focus on girls in STEM.

Mr Ouattara said the oil and gas industry was one of the key sectors that heavily depended on STEM.

Mr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, the Chairman of ABCDE, said it was necessary for the state to make its education system more electronic.

“We need to highlight the importance of electronic education and take the e-Campus platform as an opportunity for students to practise subjects online, get better and replicate it in their examination rooms.”

He urged media institutions to redirect focus and pay relevant attention to academic and knowledge-driven programmes for schools with ICT facilities.