Female SHS students with deficiencies in the two-subject areas would be tutored to re-sit their West Africa Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE). This is geared towards the gender mainstreaming policy of the institution to encourage more females to enter into science and engineering programmes in the University.

 Professor Harrison Kwame Dapaah, the Vice-Chancellor (VC) of the University announced this at the opening ceremony of the maiden science festival organised by the University on Wednesday in Sunyani. The four-day event is designed to encourage the study of science among basic and SHS students in the Brong-Ahafo Region and other part of the country.

Students from 15 public and private basic and SHSs in the Sunyani Municipality are participating in the festival.   The main idea of the festival is to combine three worlds – daily life, science and business and show their relations and areas of integration, Prof. Dapaah said.

 The VC said the University would therefore collaborate with the Ghana Education Service (GES) to use that platform to whip up interest in the study of science in the region. He appealed to the GES to increase the number of the region’s science-based SHS as most of its SHSs were not reading the sciences and expressed optimism that it would help in producing more science-inclined students for the nation.

Prof. Dapaah reiterated the importance of science, saying the nation had no excuse to relegate the study of it to the background.  Citing the role of science and technology in the socio-economic development of modern advanced and developed countries the VC contended “as a nation, it has become imperative for us to encourage the study of science at all levels of education so as to help us find practical solutions to our problems through scientific discoveries”.  

 Prof. Mrs. Esi Awuah, the Foundation VC of the University appealed to the traditional authorities in the country to collaborate with the GES to establish more science resource centres to widen and improve the study of the subject and other related academic disciplines like agriculture.

 That she said would build the capacity of the country for adequate food production to feed the populace and also manufacture its required scientific and technological products. Prof. Mrs. Awuah stated the country’s expenditure on the importation of food and other foreign goods and services would consequently be reduced, implying that the funds saved thereof could be channelled to other areas of national socio-economic development.      

Prof. Daniel Obeng-Ofori, the VC of the Catholic University College of Ghana (CUCG) said science was important for national development and there was therefore the need for the country to make conscious effort to demystify the fear about the study of it by students.  

Mrs. Kamila Justina Kabo-bah, lecturer, School of Geosciences at the University and the Coordinator of the festival said series of science-related shows, workshops, discussions, lectures and field trips among others had been lined-up for the programme.