With training in STEM-related subjects having been tagged as being an important ‘ingredient’ in the overall local training curriculum if the country is to meet the skills requirements demanded by the country’s oil and gas industry, STEM Guyana Director Karen Abrams has tagged the support of the oil and gas sector, particularly Tullow Oil in providing “funding and resources for the organization” as it seeks to consolidate the work it has done over the years to development a robust local STEM curriculum.
In a New Year Message which described 2022 as year of both “challenges” and “opportunities,” Abrams attributed “the support of funding and resources” including Tullow Oil as being key to the accomplishments of the organization. The Message also names the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) as well as “members of the Guyanese diaspora” as key contributors to the furtherance of the objectives of STEM Guyana during the year that has just ended.
According to Abrams the support secured from the named organizations enable STEM Guyana to “open 40 Learning Pods across all regions of Guyana,” which Learning Pods the statement said provided “support to over 1000 children in closing the academic gaps created by the Corona Virus pandemic and preparing them for a 21st century future.
Abrams, in her New Year Message, however, indicated that challenges still lie ahead for the organization, not least the responsibilities associated with the need to “secure a new home for STEMGuyana, after the entity was compelled to cease operations at the National Sports Hall to allow for rehabilitation of the Complex. Abrams said in her New Year message that the entity’s “conversations with the Ministry of Culture have not yet resulted in an alternative location for our student labs.”
Meanwhile, Abrams said in her New Year Message that STEM Guyana’s inability to secure visas for its “eight young engineers and mentors to “participate in the First Global robotics championship in Geneva, Switzerland” had been a major disappointment for the organization in 2022. She said that STEM Guyana’s inability to participate in the Geneva event had marked the first occasion in six years that Team Guyana Robotics was “unable to compete,” a circumstance which she described as “a crushing disappointment for our young people, who will play a crucial role in Guyana’s future development.”
Abrams said in her New Year Message that STEM Guyana was “excited to continue working with families and children” across the country.
Last year STEM Guyana partnered with the United States Embassy in Georgetown and the National Library to reinstate its Reading and Robotics programme. The programme which was fully funded by the US Embassy and which included a once weekly STEM Club gathering for two groups of students was staged from October to December and is expected to recommence this month.
