Education is the foundation of every nation’s development. A well-structured educational system should be simple, purposeful, and easy for students, parents, employers, and policymakers to understand. Unfortunately, Ghana’s second cycle education landscape appears to be moving in the opposite direction. Instead of achieving greater clarity, the continuous introduction of new school categories is creating uncertainty about their true purpose and distinctiveness.
Traditionally, Ghana’s second cycle institutions could have been effectively organized under just three major divisions:
1. Secondary Schools (SHS) – providing general academic education that prepares students for higher education and a broad range of careers.
2. Secondary Technical Schools (SHTS) – integrating general education with technical and engineering-oriented studies to produce graduates with both academic and practical competencies.
3. Technical and Vocational Schools – focusing on hands-on technical, vocational, industrial, and entrepreneurial skills that directly prepare learners for employment or self-employment.
Such a structure would be simple, coherent, and nationally understood. Every learner would know where they belong based on their interests, talents, and career aspirations.
However, today’s educational landscape has become increasingly populated with new labels and categories. One of the latest additions is the STEM School. While the emphasis on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics is unquestionably important for national development, many Ghanaians are asking a legitimate question:
How fundamentally different is a STEM School from a Secondary Technical School?
Historically, Secondary Technical Schools have already taught mathematics, physics, engineering drawing, technical design, electronics, woodwork, metalwork, applied sciences, and technology. These subjects naturally fall within the broader STEM philosophy. If so, is the difference one of substance, curriculum, teaching methodology, facilities, or simply branding?
If the curriculum remains largely similar, the introduction of separate STEM schools risks creating duplication rather than innovation. Instead of strengthening existing Secondary Technical Schools with modern laboratories, robotics centres, artificial intelligence laboratories, coding programmes, and digital manufacturing technologies, resources may be diverted into creating new institutional identities that leave many stakeholders confused.
This growing trend also raises broader policy questions. If every emerging educational focus receives its own school designation, where does it end? Today it is STEM Schools; tomorrow could it be AI Schools, Robotics Schools, Cybersecurity Schools, Green Technology Schools, or Climate Schools. While these fields are important, they may be better introduced as specialised programmes within existing school categories rather than creating an ever-expanding list of school types.
The issue is not opposition to innovation. Ghana must embrace emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, robotics, biotechnology, renewable energy, and data science if it hopes to remain globally competitive. However, innovation should strengthen existing educational structures rather than complicate them.
Educational reforms should prioritise curriculum modernisation instead of institutional multiplication. Existing Secondary Technical Schools can easily evolve into centres of excellence by incorporating AI, robotics, coding, automation, mechatronics, and digital fabrication without necessarily abandoning their identity or requiring entirely new classifications.
A simpler and more coherent system offers several advantages:
• It makes educational pathways easier for students and parents to understand.
• It reduces unnecessary administrative complexity.
• It promotes efficient allocation of resources.
• It strengthens public confidence in educational reforms.
• It allows policymakers to focus on improving quality rather than multiplying categories.
Ultimately, what determines educational excellence is not the name displayed on a school’s signboard but the quality of teaching, the relevance of the curriculum, the competence of teachers, the adequacy of facilities, and the opportunities available to learners.
Ghana’s educational system should strive for clarity, consistency, and purpose. Rather than creating new labels that may overlap with existing institutions, policymakers should modernise and adequately resource the existing three broad categories of second cycle education. In doing so, the nation can produce graduates who are academically strong, technically competent, digitally skilled, and globally competitive.
The conversation therefore is not whether STEM education is necessary—it certainly is. The real question is whether creating separate STEM Schools is the most effective approach, or whether strengthening Secondary Technical Schools to deliver STEM education would better serve Ghana’s long-term educational and economic aspirations.
Otherwise, one cannot help but ask with a touch of humour:
Today it is STEM Schools… tomorrow, shall we have AI Schools?
Ing. Dr. Sogbey & Michael Ackumey of Africa Development Council – ADC
