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Unpacking GSTEP 2025: Lessons from the Application Stage

The Unpacking GSTEP series offers insights into the data and stories that reveal the challenges and successes of working with young people and teachers in practical STEM education across Ghana.

This will be a three-part series, as we have closed GSTEP 2025 and are now starting the outreach for GSTEP 2026! So, what did we learn from GSTEP 2025?

We will explore the different stages of the prize, including what we learnt from the data at the application stage, the development stage (induction, pitching, and judging), and at the final exhibition and awards stage.

Who applies?

Now in its third year, GSTEP launched to inspire students across three regions to develop practical and entrepreneurial STEM ideas for issues in their own communities.

What’s the motivation?

GSTEP is a challenge prize – a mechanism to encourage people to solve an issue through a reward, an incentive. 

Our analysis of the ideas revealed that 1,350 were ‘substantial’, meaning they had considered the problem, its impact on their community, and how STEM could be applied practically to address the issue, providing specific details on development and implementation. The key areas of focus were on the environment and waste management, energy and power systems, transportation and mobility and safety and security.

The region also dictated the ideas generated, as there were pressing needs identified by students based on their locale and how their communities are impacted. The key innovation themes were:

  • Greater Accra: “Smart City Solutions” – urban density challenges
    • Emphasised smart systems (28%) for urban challenges
  • Ashanti: “Sustainable Rural Development” – energy access and agriculture
    • Focused on solar adoption (42%) due to rural electrification needs
  • Eastern: “Agricultural Innovation” – farming productivity and community needs
    • Prioritised agricultural GPS (18%) for farming applications

 

What’s the understanding

The students’ understanding demonstrated a neutral grasp of STEM, entrepreneurial, business, and soft skills, including creativity and problem-solving. However, there is a common tendency to overrate such skills, as no one wants to appear as if they don’t understand.

Ashanti region teams were more likely to rate their skills as having a good understanding compared to teams from Greater Accra and the Eastern region.

At the application stage, it is difficult to assess the students’ individual skills and understanding, as the teacher completes the application form on the students’ behalf. We encourage teachers to ensure that they ask their students, but there are many instances where it is likely that the teachers also contribute to the overrating of skills. 

GSTEP adopts a community-centred approach to practical STEM education for young people, and teachers are central to students’ learning. Teachers’ understanding and ability to teach STEM and entrepreneurship are equally important. 

We found that teachers overrated their understanding of STEM and entrepreneurship, as well as their ability to teach it. From our previous experiences, teachers may have a good theoretical understanding, but they lack a practical application of these areas. They may understand the concepts, but when it comes to application, there is a lack of experience, which can be due to a lack of access to practical education, funding to develop practical and physical ideas in classrooms, and perceptions that STEM requires high-tech equipment.

What else do we know about the applicants?

The majority of students who applied to GSTEP this past year did not participate in GSTEP before, as we were able to reach a new audience of JHS students through widespread outreach. The approach included in-person roadshows across the three regions, more substantial alignment with the GES STEM Coordinators, and the use of media – digital, print and TV promotion.

Over 80% of the applications state they either had no or very little access to STEM equipment and materials in their schools. This statistic represents why GSTEP exists – to close the gap between young people and their ability to create practical and meaningful solutions for their problems. There was no specific distinction by region or school type (public or private) regarding what schools had access to. This aligns to findings from our initial research in 2022, as well as more recent academic research by Akon-Yamga et al. in 2024, highlighting that access issues persist.

Providing affordable and quality STEM education kits through the One4All Kit is one aspect of what GSTEP provides to students in the development stage, which will be discussed later in the series. 

 

Next week, we will learn about the key takeaways from the GSTEP development stage, including how students developed their skills and understanding through various trainings and support, as well as the building of their prototypes, and how teachers were empowered to better support their students in the development of the prototypes.

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