Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Education must be backed with passion and interest on the part of students and not based on good grades alone.

Dr George Owusu Essegbey, Director of the Technology Development Transfer Centre of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR-TDTC) who said this, indicated that science and its related studies were suffering because people go into it without interest and passion.

He, therefore, advised that the new STEM institutions not to debar people from offering science at the Senior High School based on their Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) results.

Dr Essegbey was speaking in an interview with the GNA at a capacity building workshop on Ghana’s Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) System in Koforidua.

“Often, people are barred from offering science because they obtained double digits at the BECE, but that alone should not be the basis, passion and interest in the subject is very critical,” he added.

He observed that STI was so critical for socio-economic improvement as well as achieving Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs), “so, there should be mobility across the studying disciplines to demystify Science”.

Ghana is part of six countries participating in a global pilot program known as “Strengthening STI systems for Sustainable Development in Africa” to develop STI road map for the achievement of the SDGs.

An important step towards realizing the expected outcome of the project is to develop a monitoring and evaluation (M&E) framework tailored to Ghana’s national circumstances, needs and priorities.

The workshop organised by the CSIR’s Science and Technology Policy Research Institute in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology Innovation (MESTI) was to enhance the capacity of participants on how to report on the indicators.

Participants were taken through the STI Monitoring & Evaluation indicators framework, human resource capacity, infrastructure, and the GO-SPIN (Global Observatory of STI Policy Instruments).