By Edward Acquah
Accra, July 18, GNA- Dr Clement Apaak, Deputy Minister of Education, has expressed delight over the quality of innovations by Junior High School (JHS) students at the 2025 Ghana Science and Tech Explorer Challenge Prize (GSTEP).
The Minister was particularly excited about the invention of gas leakage detectors by one of the teams that exhibited ingenuity at the GSTEP Exhibition and Awards in Accra.
Dr Apaak said such innovations could be deployed to the market immediately to save lives by reducing fires associated with gas leakage.
The GSTEP encourages and supports JHS students (11-16 years) and teachers to develop practical Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) skills and products that benefit local communities.
The competition, which covered Greater Accra, Ashanti said Eastern regions, received 1,500 applications from young innovators, out of which 50 made it to the finals.
Among the innovations were the use of solar to preserve food and dry crops, smart stick and other digital tools designed to ease movement of persons with disability, traffic management system, transformation of waste into power and generation of fertiliser and manure, and gas leakage detector.
The young innovators were tasked to identify problems in their communities and develop solutions to address them sustainably.
Dr Apaak expressed gratitude to the GSTEP for whipping up interest in STEM among students and supporting them to create real life solutions.
He said STEM education was not a luxury but a necessity and appealed to the organisers to extend the programme to the northern sector to discover and train more innovators.
The Technocrats_Innowear were crowned winners of the 2025 GSTEP competition.
TheTechnocrats_SafetySense Engineering won the Best Pitch while the ReadEase won the Most Innovative Idea award.
The Pacesetters won the Best in Applied Sciences and SCI-G emerged the First Runner-Up, followed by Eco-Fuel Agenda who clinched the Second Runner-Up position.
The Outstanding Personalities awards were presented to Queendela Norvisi Djorkoto (Most Outstanding YSG), Michael Mensah (Footprint), Foster Dushie (Most Outstanding Teacher), Frimpong Kwame Manso (Outstanding Business Mentor), and Daniel Etrue (Outstanding Technical Coach).
Dr. Munawaru Issahaque, Deputy Director General, Ghana Education Service, described the innovations as “amazing”, emphasising that STEM education was a critical tool to drive quality education.
“The creativity you have demonstrated shows that age is no barrier to making positive impact,” he said.
Madam Constance Agyemang, Founder of GSTEP, said she was humbled by the potential she saw in the young innovators who had demonstrated the desire to create solutions to address problems in their communities.
She encouraged them to be proud of themselves for their ingenuity and urged those who did not win awards not to be disappointed but endeavour to excel in their endeavours.
GNA
Edited by Agnes Boye-Doe