He mentioned the Department of Physics, Chemistry, Biology, and Agricultural Science as worst affected and revealed that the Institution formerly organized remedial classes to better the grades of students to shore up the enrolment but to no avail.

The Vice Chancellor expressed his frustration when he opened the Ghana Science Association's (GSA) 60th anniversary and 31st Biennial Conference in Cape Coast and described the situation as an impairment to the nation's industrialisation drive.

The three-day conference is on the theme: "GSA at 60: Promoting science, technology and innovation for sustainable growth and development."

Prof. Ampiah partly blamed the situation on lack of innovative teaching methods of some science teachers and called on the members of the Ghana Association of Science Teachers (GAST), to effectively stimulate productive discussions and come up with more innovative methods of teaching science and technology subjects to demystify the fears of students in learning the subject.

"Let's teach the students the practicals and not assume that teaching them the theory is enough'.

The Vice Chancellor also underlined the fact that the abysmal performance of students in pre-tertiary schools was due to lack of basic laboratory materials and equipment, which interfered with the ideal of teaching science using a hands-on approach.

Without proper practicals or demos, students would find it more challenging to understand topics taught in class, and noted that in many respects, some of the science teachers made the teaching of science so theoretical that one needed to be highly imaginative to be able to follow.

"In 2016, when students from Prempeh College won the International Robotics Awards (IRA), I was excited. That's because, some teachers took it upon themselves to train these students in the practical aspect of science to gain this award," he said.

The Vice Chancellor stated that Innovative ways of teaching and learning science and technology had been identified as the surest method that would help science education and reposition Ghana towards faster economic growth and sustained development.

Therefore, teachers must adopt modern pedagogies to push forward the frontiers of science and technology education in Ghana by producing the next generation of problem solvers who are not rote learners.

Mr. Yaw Osafo-Marfo, the Senior Minister who was the special guest reiterated government's commitment to the teaching and learning of science and technology as central to the achievement of national development aspirations.

 It had therefore, put in place a number of measures to improve the teaching and learning of science and technology and would remain focused in supporting the national policy of achieving 60:40 student ratio for the sciences as compared to the humanities.

This would be done by expanding Sciences, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics scholarship schemes and provide incentives and support for accredited private tertiary institutions to establish schools and faculties of science and technology teachers.

Mr. Osafo-Marfo assured that government would ensure that well-trained, confident and contented teachers were placed at the heart of delivery of quality education, their views sought on education policy innovation and implementation as well as professional development with work environment treated with respect.

Professor Moses Jojo Eghan, President of GSA was grateful to government for the support and moves to implement most of their recommendations towards accelerating national development.

He called for the implementation of Policies geared towards the application of Science and Technology Innovations (STI) to be integrated into national development strategies as aligned with the appropriate institutional and organizational framework to help raise productivity, improve competitiveness, support economic growth, create Jobs and conserve the environment.

Leveraging on the multi-disciplinary capacity of GSA, he said they were better placed to assist government in its efforts to integrate STI into the national development agenda, which seeks to propel the economy from its current lower status to a higher-income economic status and prosperity for all citizens.