THE New York American Choral Directors Association (NY-ACDA), a non-profit organisation, has partnered with STEMGuyana to fund scholarships for 15 Guyanese students to attend the STEMGuyana virtual academy for 6 months.

Director of STEMGuyana, Karen Abrams, in a recent interview with this publication, said the scholarships target children, ages 7 to 15 with the aim of inspiring the next generation of global innovators from Guyana to be problem-solvers and critical thinkers and to develop their conflict resolution skills.
She articulated that children from around the world will meet on Saturdays to engage in an integrated, fun, challenging and exciting curriculum.
“We integrated Maths, Science, English, Arts and Technology in our lesson plans and we’ll also use topics from MoE’s Math and Science curricula for students to learn artificial intelligence and building projects with scratch programming kit, as well,“ she said.

Abrams informed that the organisation which launched its STEMGuyana International Academy programme on Sunday, has received registrations from varying regions across Guyana, the US and the Caribbean, and is expected to collaborate with the Ministry of Sports, Youth & Culture and the Ministry of Education (MoE).
The programme began with preparatory Scratch coding classes for registered students.

The Guyana Chronicle understands that Scratch coding is integrated into STEMGuyana’s curriculum and all registered students are required to have a basic understanding of it prior to enrolment. Those classes are free and aid in preparing registered students before the academic programme begins in November.

The programme is designed for small batches of students from around the country in keeping with the COVID-19 preventative measures.
“We are not sure how long COVID-19 will continue to affect our children, so we’ve decided to design this programme as a model which can be quickly expanded after the pandemic is over,” Abrams expressed.

According to the 2017 LAPTOP survey of the Guyanese population, less than 50% of households have access to computers and internet connectivity. In this regard, STEM-Guyana is working with sponsors, local churches, NGOs and the National Data Management Authority (NDMA) to allow vulnerable children access to the virtual academy programme via internet hubs and other facilities with internet access.