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The minister of Education, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh on Tuesday, May 15 2018 signed an agreement with the Director General of UNESCO, Audrey Azoulay to effect the approval of the Africa Institute of Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) as a category II institute of Excellence, marking the Director General’s first signing of an international agreement since she took office in 2017.

The signing, which took place at the office of the Ms. Azoulay at the headquarters of UNESCO in Paris, was witnessed by Ghana’s Ambassador to France, H.E. Anna Bossman and other officials from the Ghana National Commission for UNESCO and the Ghana Embassy in Paris. It comes after the approval of Ghana to host a centre of excellence on October 13, 2017.

With the coming into effect of the Centre’s operations, AIMS Ghana will be embedded in UNESCO’s network of Category II institutes and centres which are formal arrangements approved by the General Conference of UNESCO. The Centre will further contribute to Ghana’s efforts to achieve SDGs 1, 4, 5 and 9 of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

AIMS Ghana’s cooperation with UNESCO will foster the development of activities in STEM education and research areas, including science teaching materials and in contributing to the work of UNESCO in promoting science learning and teaching at national, subregional and regional levels. The overarching aim is to reduce the deficit in schooling in the mathematical sciences and to foster the blossoming of talented young African scientists.

Among those who spearheaded this significant achievement is one of Africa’s renowned scientist and mathematical physicist, the late Prof. F. K. A. Allotey, former President of AIMS Ghana; Prof. Edward S. Ayensu, Chairman of AIMS Ghana Board of Trustees; and H.E. Anna Bossman, Ghana’s Ambassador to France, Portugal and Permanent Delegate to UNESCO.