Beginning next academic year, 12 Senior High Schools will offer courses in aviation and aerospace, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, Minister for Education, has announced.

The initiative, according to him, forms part of efforts to promote Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education in the country to enable Ghanaian students compete in the fourth industrial revolution.

The Minister announced this at the Afia Kobi Ampem Girls Senior High School, which is credited as the first SHS in Ghana to have developed a miniature airplane as part of its engineering exploits.

He was in the school to encourage the girls who had formed an engineering club to work hard and make a mark in the field of engineering while positioning themselves to further their education abroad.

“Next year, there are about 12 schools that will be offering aviation and aerospace courses and in their case it is not going to be a club but an academic programme,” he stated.

Dr. Adutwum explained that students would take courses in addition to physics, chemistry and advanced mathematics, adding that the decision to introduce aviation and aerospace courses was inspired by Afia Kobi Girls SHS.

He said the Ministry was considering converting the school into a STEM school to train more girls in the sciences for accelerated national development from all spheres.

“This school is going to be transformed into a STEM school. They are doing some great things in the field of aviation and aerospace as pioneers at this level,” the Minister noted.

He said government was committed to expanding facilities in the school to enhance academic work, adding that it had already been provided with well-equipped science laboratories.

He applauded management of the school for being the first to introduce an initiative called “drop everything and read”, a time set aside for students to read.

“We are going to provide them a library so that they can do just that and I have no doubt in my mind that five years from now this school will be one of the best in the country,” he observed.

The students, he said, were poised to change the history of Ghana through STEM education considering the great things they were doing through the engineering club.

He said he and his team at the Ministry had every reason to change the school to become more STEM focused, reiterating that a STEM lab would be provided to enable them do more robotics as well as artificial intelligence based projects.

The Minister applauded the teacher leading the engineering club in the school, especially when some members of the club were not science students and reminded them that they were on course to change the face of education in Ghana.