Rwanda Gets 4 More STEM Centres
STEMpower, a pan-African charity non-governmental organisation promoting STEM education in Sub-Saharan Africa, will soon inaugurate four more facilities in Rwanda.
Officials said the move is aimed at promoting STEM education in the country.
The four new centers are set up in East African Christian College, Kicukiro District, Gitwe Adventist College, Ruhango District, Umutara Polytechnic, Nyagatare District, and in University of Tourism, Technology and Business Studies (UTB), Rubavu District.
Every facility is composed of an electronic laboratory and a computer laboratory equipped with 30 monitors connected to one server.
The centers help students to gain hands-on skills that help them come up with innovations that address problems in their community.
The surrounding community is also given access to the facilities to sharpen their computing and electronic skills depending on their level of education, hence complementing the efforts of the Government of Rwanda to bridge the digital divide.
“STEMpower is open for collaboration and has signed MOUs with relevant institutions that offer incubation programs, in a bid to help students using the STEM centers to continue benefiting from capacity-building programs, training, robotics, and more,” said Espoir Serukiza, STEMpower Representative in Rwanda.
“With the additional four STEM centers, we will be able to reach more students across the country, as we avail equipment essential to realizing their academic and professional aspirations,” he added.
According to Dr. Papias Musafiri, Deputy Principal for Academic Affairs and Research at the East African Christian College (EACC), one of the universities hosting a newly established STEM centre, the new facilities will help bridge the technological literacy gap.
“The newly established STEM centre at EACC will bring immense value by preparing students from neighbouring schools for successful careers, fostering critical thinking and creativity, promoting technological literacy, and contributing to the social economic development of the local community,” he said.
Kenny Ruzima, a student at Gitwe Adventist College, another high-learning institution with a STEM centre, welcomed the news and said that students have been facing a shortage of electronic devices such as coding materials and computer programming systems to help them put into practice what they have been memorising day after day in class.
“My colleagues and I are excitedly looking forward to the centre’s inauguration,” he noted.
Meanwhile, concerning future plans, STEMpower plans to introduce entrepreneurship programs at the centres in Rwanda, as is the case in other countries where the organisation has a presence, such as Ethiopia.
The program allows aspiring entrepreneurs to benefit from capacity building training that equips them with fundamental skills to become successful entrepreneurs.
In Rwanda, STEMpower opened its office in May 2021 and has since established eight STEM centres across the country.
The first four facilities to be established are located in the University of Rwanda- College of Science and Technology, Ines Ruhengeri, Kibogora Polytechnic, and the University of Rwanda- College of Education.
The post Rwanda Gets 4 More STEM Centres first appeared on ChimpReports.
