By Samuel Ofori Boateng
Trabuom (Ash), May 09, GNA – Mr John Ampontuah Kuma, Deputy Minister of Finance has donated an amount of GH¢100,000.00 to the Engineering Club of the Afia Kobi Senior High School at Trabuom in the Atwima Kwanwoma District.
The gesture was to support the school and the club in continuing its engineering innovations which have resulted in the building and flying of an aircraft.
The Deputy Minister has also pledged to construct an ultramodern ICT centre for the school to serve as a special place for the engineering club to continue their good work.
Speaking to the Ghana News Agency after the donation, Mr Kuma, who is also the Members of Parliament for Ejisu, said the gesture was to motivate the students and their staff to do more and come out with many innovative crafts capable of solving societal problems.
He stressed on the government’s commitment to support science, mathematics, and engineering education to help equip and prepare the Ghanaian child adequately to meet the challenges of the 21st century.
“Even though I have done this in my individual capacity to support you, I can assure you that the government will support this project.
We will work together to get funding from both local and international sources to push forward, and I want to encourage you to come out with a man-craft in the near future.”
Madam Silvia Newton, Headmistress of the school, who received the cash on behalf of the club, thanked the Deputy Minister for the recognition.
She said the donation would go a long way to help in the procurement of materials for other innovative crafts.
Madam Newton called on other individuals and organizations to support the school to continue with its innovative projects.
Mr Ferdinand Sam, the Lead Engineer, and the brain behind the various engineering projects of the club, said with the right support the club could be able to manufacture and commercialize its various crafts.
He said the club was ready to build man-craft for the country’s security agencies such as the police, military, the fire service, and the navy.
Mr Sam said the club had already created a blueprint for watercraft which could detect minerals and missing persons in a vast deep river.
The engineering club of Afia Kobi Girls Senior High School in April 2023 designed and flew a jet aircraft as part of its project work in the school.
In a viral video, the team took the aircraft to the field to test-fly it to the astonishment of other students and staff present.
The plane flew at a very high altitude without any problem.
The project has since caught the attention of many Ghanaians with people calling on the government and other stakeholders in education to support the school to do more of such innovations.
GNA