By Dorothy Frances Ward
Juaben (Ash), Dec 1, GNA – The SOS Children’s Villages Ghana, in partnership with the Ghana Education Service, has organised a career fair on Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (STEM) for some selected schools in Juaben and Ejisu municipalities of the Ashanti region.
The fair, organised under the Family Strengthening Programme, of SOS Children’s Villages, is to help build awareness and raise the interest of the pupils in STEM courses.
It was held on the theme: “Raising innovative children through STEM for development.”
Among the items exhibited by the school children at the fair were solar machines, remote controlled toy cars, electronic toy cars, blenders, traffic lights, various bamboo and clay building structures, among others.
Mr Joseph Kudjo Yane, Coordinator of the Family Strengthening Project, said the project was a community intervention that supported children at risk of losing parental care by providing community- based family preservation services.
With the project, he said, about 1,081 vulnerable children in 323 families and 161 unemployed youth, have been supported in various vocational training such as dressmaking, hairdressing and other TVET programmes.
Mr Yane said the project also supported community and public schools through capacity building for teachers and the provision of teaching and learning materials in order to improve teaching and learning of STEM courses.
He said the main aim of promoting STEM was to improve creativity of children, develop the communication skills of children, and empower them with critical thinking abilities, while promoting their interest in research and boosting social and emotional learning.
Mr Mark Abodoo Kansake, Head of Supervision at the Juaben Municipal Directorate of Education, said the project during the COVID-19 lockdown organised home schooling or extra tuition for children in the communities.
He said, some schools had also benefited from logistics and other personal protection equipment as well as ICT equipment, adding that over 600 children had so far received educational materials under the family strengthening project.
GNA