The Director General for Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT (GI-KACE), Dr Collins Yeboah-Afari,has stated that the government’s decision to intensify Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education will produce a generation of innovators and critical thinkers who will fit in the digital world.
Speaking at the closing ceremony of the Centre’s ‘Coding for Youth’ (C4Y) vacation ICT programme, Dr Yeboah-Afari indicated that the C4Y forms part of GI-KACE’s mandate to help the Government’s Digitalization Transformation agenda.
“As we all know, the government has invested largely to strengthen STEM education for our young ones because Ghana wants to raise a generation of critical thinkers and innovators who will fit in the ever-dynamic digital world. This is the main reason why we at GI-KACE have taken it upon ourselves to continue training these young ones in the area of ICT. We also run several ICT courses that are tailor-made to equip our students for the job market,” Dr Yeboah-Afari disclosed.
He commended the kids for successfully completing the ten-day training program which began on August 15 to help engage the children productively during their short vacation. The programme seeks to enable the participants to build human capacity and digital communities empowered with emerging technologies in solving Africa’s problems.
The kids, ranging between the ages of 10 and 18, were put into groups to present practically what they have learnt to their parents, lecturers and director of the Centre. They also demonstrated innovative solutions in Animation, Scratch and Python, Robotics & Internet of Things (IoT), Web Design, Graphic Design and the Foundation of Artificial Intelligence. After their presentation, the kids also received certificates of participation for the Centre.