A Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM) Laboratory has been handed over to the Florence Osei Ntim Roman Catholic Basic School Junior High School (FON JHS) at Kwahu Pepease in the Kwahu East District.
The laboratory, which cost $5,000.00, was established by Ms. Akosua Afriyie Mensah, a 17-year-old Ghanaian American high school student at Northwest School in North Carolina, USA.
The aim is to help promote the effective teaching of science and mathematics in school. However, with a passion for music, she also donated musical instruments to the school to help train the pupils.
Among items donated to stock the laboratory were laptops, computers, projector, books and science apparatuses.
At the handover ceremony, Dr. William Ofori Ntim, a medical doctor in the US, commended the gesture, stating that it was committed to promoting quality education by providing communities with ultra-modern library facilities, science apparatuses, and educational materials.
He noted that it had always b
een the donor’s priority to introduce modern technology by providing items to students in deprived communities to help expose them to the 21st century, which was the motivation behind this gesture.
This was not the first time the donor had established such an edifice at FON School.
She had plans to extend her reach to Pepease Presbyterian Junior High School, where she would provide a reading and music laboratory and a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) laboratory.
He said more schools in Kwahu were to benefit from the donor as she was ready to support and establish such facilities in schools across the district and that she would not relent on her efforts in providing modern technologies to students.
Dr Ntim promised the donor’s continuous support to schools in Kwahu and urged the students to use the items to better their lives.
Receiving the keys on behalf of the school, Mr. Badu Boakye Yiadom, Headteacher of the school lauded Ms Akosua Afriyie Mensah and parents for the kind gestu
re and promised to maintain the equipment to serve other students who would patronize the school.
He said with the provision of the STEAM laboratory, enrollment in the school had increased massively with low dropouts giving statistics as enrollment had increased from 100 to 150 and school dropout decreased by 50 per cent.
‘No wonder the school had a 100 per cent pass rate in a Science and Mathematics quiz organized by the District Educational Directorate for Junior High Schools in the District due to the gesture’, he added.
Source: Ghana News Agency