According her STEM was the driving force of the 21st centu­ry and the youth of the country cannot be left out on it.

“STEM remains the foun­dation for any meaningful socio-economic development in the 21st century so we need to encourage our youth to show interest in that area. Today it is about how to apply both the hands and brains and not just memorisation,” she said.

Ms Mensah made the appeal at the opening of the First Lego League Robotics Competition 2022/23 season in Accra at the weekend.

In all ten schools are partic­ipating in the competition and the ultimate winner is expected to represent the country in the world robotics and innovative competition slated for later this year.

The participating schools are, Presbyterian Boy Senior High School (Presec), Mawuli Senior High School, Aburi Girls’ Se­nior High School, Xavier Senior High, Assin Manso Senior High School, Osiem Senior High School, Akim Senior High School, Oda Senior High School and Atefuah Senior High.

As part of the competition, participants are to demonstrate innovative ways of developing sustainable energy technology through the use of local materi­als and provided legos.

Ms Mensah said government had invested in the provision of the facilities both in infra­structure and equipment in the teaching and learning of STEM across the country.

She said with the operation­alisation of the STEM schools, many students would be able to access STEM education and enable them develop their skills in that area.

She explained that apart from providing the necessary infrastructure and supplying the need equipment, a number of projects involving the private sector had been rolled out to push the frontiers of STEM in the country.

She listed the STEMNOV­TION competition and the First Lego League and Robot­ics Competitions as some of the measures put in place to practicalise what was studied in school.

Ms Mensah said it was en­couraging to see a number of girls showing confidence in that area of study and expressed the hope that a lot more girls would take interest.

On his part, the Benjamin Amoako Coordinator of Coder­ina organisers said as part of the competition, participants were made to research into a real world problem and come out with innovative ways of solving such problems using the prototype they develop.

Mr Amoako explained that this year’s competition was on the theme: Energise.

He said the focus was on public schools and the winner would get the chance to repre­sent the country in the first ever international Lego and Innova­tive competition.