Pursuing Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education is the way to go as a country to be competitive globally, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, the Minister for Education, has said.

He said the fourth industrial revolution required a science-based education system to prepare leaners to catch up with the fast-paced technological advancement driving global economies.

Dr Adutwum said these after inspecting the progress of work on the construction of a STEM school at Daabaa in the Atwima Nwabiagya North District of the Ashanti Region.

The school, which is the biggest STEM school in the Ashanti Region, comes with 12 laboratories and is expected to admit 2,500 students to pursue various science-related courses upon completion.

The expectation is that the school would be ready by December, this year to admit its first batch of about 800 students.

“This is going to serve the good people of Ghana, giving us the opportunity to pursue STEM education, and compete with the rest of the world,” the Minister noted.

He said it was an opportune time for the nation to invest in STEM-focused schools to make Ghanaian students competitive on the global stage.

Ghana must be at the forefront of the 21st century education and this is what these schools will allow us to do, he indicated.

“This school is going to be operated differently where teachers will own and decorate their classrooms.

“They do not have to go to the staff common room to drink water because they will have their own fridges and other facilities,” Dr Adutwum explained.

He said the Daabaa STEM School was going to be a center of excellence that could be compared to any school in any part of the world, saying that the facilities could match up with universities in other countries.

He said the government was committed to changing the face of education and by extension transform the socio-economic fortunes of the country.

Ghana, according to Dr Adutwum, could produce about 30,000 engineers annually but it was currently doing 7,000, leaving a deficit of 23,000.

It is for this reason that STEM education must be vigorously pursued to bridge the gap as a nation determined to remain relevant in the global scheme of things, he posited.

The Minister said the construction of STEM schools across the country by the President was a bold step towards the vision to flip the science and humanities courses at the tertiary level which currently stood at 40-60.