The Deputy Minister of Education in charge of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), Prof. Kingsley Nyarko, has expressed his satisfaction with the significant rise in participation at the 2024 Stemnnovation Competition.

According to the Minister, this year’s event, the third edition, recorded a 10% increase in student involvement compared to previous years.

He emphasized that the main goal of the competition is to equip students with innovative and creative problem-solving skills, not through theoretical means, but through practical, hands-on activities.

Nyarko expressed optimism that the ideas generated by the students would eventually evolve into real-world solutions, contributing to addressing some of Ghana’s major challenges.

He added that the new curriculum aims to foster a mindset geared towards creation, which aligns with the government’s broader industrialization agenda.

“As the years progress, we see that the numbers have increased. We also see the enthusiasm with which they are participating in the competition. Let’s encourage our children to partake in this initiative, explore, and innovate to solve Ghana’s problems. Now is the time to foster positive mentalities and show that we can make this country better,” he stated.

Students from various senior high schools across the country participated in this year’s competition, demonstrating their enthusiasm for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) initiatives. Some participating schools include; Savelegu Senior High School, Ghana National College, and Pope Johns Senior High School, among others.

Also, the Chief Executive Officer of the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme (NEIP), Kofi Ofosu Nkansah, announced plans to support the top 20 finalists.

He revealed that the NEIP would provide monetary assistance to help these students further develop their innovative STEM ideas.

Kofi Ofosu Nkansah,

“We’ll be giving a cash price of 50,000 cedis to the overall winner, 40,000 to the second-placed school and 30,000 cedis to the 3rd placed school. From 4th to 10th position will be getting 20, 000 each and this year the 11th to 20th will be getting 10, 000 cedis each”.

Nkansah also addressed concerns about intellectual property protection, ensuring that measures are in place to prevent “idea theft”.

The government, he said, has implemented strategies to safeguard the originality and ownership of student ideas, encouraging young innovators to contribute without fear of losing their intellectual property.

“Now the government has set up, an office of Registrar of Companies, in charge of intellectual properties, patency It’s an emerging area and we’ve not done so well, so we want to take our participants through these, give them capacity training programs so that even if they’ve added to existing ideas and they can develop it and get licenses to protect these ideas,” he added.