Isaac Nkrumah (Sir Zibo) writes: OPEN LETTER TO THE EDUCATION MINISTER, HON. HARUNA IDDRISSU.

Dear Honourable Minister,

It is my fervent prayer and hope this letter finds you in good health.

Firstly, I would like to congratulate you on your nomination, Vetting by Parliament and the subsequent swearing-in by the President H.E John Dramani Mahama as the Substantive Minister of Education for the Republic of Ghana.

Managing the Education Ministry is difficult and it will demand your rich leadership experience gathered for all these years.

Hon. Minister, you are handling a Ministry which houses majority of public workers on government payroll at the Controller and Accountant General’s Department.

Aslo, a Ministry that has numerous agencies and departments under its jurisdiction thus making the work so difficult.

Now, back to the crucial issue which warranted this open letter. I am professional teacher who has taught in the basic school for close to a decade before resigning to join the Accounting profession. The experience I had in my teaching journey as solidified my stands on limiting “Rote Learning (Chew and pour)” and rather adopting the practical education like the STEM Education which is Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.

My strong conviction for STEM education became severe when I met a student who I taught at Ahamansu EP JHS Seven (7) years ago. I must admit that he wasn’t that brilliant in class in terms of producing “dito dito”, which has been written in his notebook but he narrated how he joined the IT field after Senior High school. He is now into software development and he is very doing well.

Hon. Minister, on this premise I recommend Mr. Daniel Aboagye (Teacher Aboagye) to you.

This gentleman is a STEMNOVATION ICON who hails from Apesokubi in the Biakoye District, Oti Region. I encourage you to make good use of his STEM prowess to help build the STEM education in Ghana.

“Teacher Aboagye” has won so many awards as a STEM Coach for the impact he has made and keeps making to improve the STEM Education in Ghana, some of these awards are Africa Personality of the year 2023, Sustainable Development teacher of the year award, Humanitarian award, Global Hundred Most Impactful Personalities in Ghana.

He has also coached and trained students in many schools to STEM competitions and won trophies to their credit.

His influence made Worawora SHS achieved the 2nd runner-up position in the National STEM INNOVATION Championship in 2022. In 2023, he led the same team from Worawora SHS to win the overall best project in the National STEM competition held in Saltpond.

He coached some Junior High School students to obtain the 2nd best project in the West African Model Lab Championship (AirTad23) in 2023. In 2024 (AirTad24) the same team he coached won the championship.

Most of the projects developed by these students focus on providing solutions for the community particularly farmers.

The students successfully built an irrigation pump, a smart water dispenser, rural solar electrification projects and many others.

Teacher Aboagye started his career as a Computer Network Engineer at Supertech Ltd. His unwavering passion to give back to his community and Ghana as a whole made him resign from Supertech Ltd to impact Knowledge on STEM in solution – oriented in the younger generation.

Finally, Hon. Minister, there is a “Conspiracy Theory” going around that H.E the President and some stalwarts in the NDC decided to appoint you as the Education Minister to make you unpopular in your political career because of the difficulties associated with handling issues in Education Ministry. I know you will surely succeed and those “enemies” will be put to shame.

I hope my humble plea to make Teacher Aboagye useful will be considered.

Thank you.