The Minister for Communications and Digitalisation, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, has visited three ICT labs within the Kotobabi 2 & 3’ Basic School, the Our Lady of Assumption R/C Basic School, and the St Joseph Anglican Basic School in the Greater Accra region, to encourage girls to partake in ICT.
The tour, which will end on Wednesday, 3rd July, is part of a week-long exercise to furnish these ICT centres with laptops, and introduce students, especially girls, to computer programming, animation, website design, and cybersecurity, among others. The project is being supported by GIFEC, GI-KACE, the NCA, MTN, GES, ATC Ghana, and GIZ.
The minister explained that she deemed the Girls-in-ICT project very necessary because the goal was to narrow the gender digital gap and ensure that girls and women become as confident in the ICT field as boys and men are. It was vital to begin ICT training at basic schools so as to build the foundation early. She hoped that the programme would continue even after her term was over.
She added that the Ministry aimed to train 3,000 girls in three regions, and that there will be a regional competition where the best 100 girls will win laptops. Also, the top 10 girls will win laptops, while their schools get furnished with ICT labs, while the top three girls receive laptops and cash prizes.
Hon. Owusu-Ekuful noted her pride at the girls’ enthusiasm in ICT, and challenged them to become Ghana’s digital leaders, “In the future, you are the ones who will be managing all of the digital interventions in the government and in the private sector.”
Speaking of career paths that the girls could venture into, which include data science, artificial intelligence, and cybersecurity, she suggested, “The gaming industry is very, very, very lucrative, and it’s growing so it’s something that we want all of you to consider. So, these simple games that you’re learning, they could be the beginning of you also creating your own games.”
Hon. Owusu-Ekuful advised that almost every problem could be solved by applying technology, and that its potential was limitless. “What we want to do is to excite you so that you think about the possibilities of learning hard with your science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education,” she said.
The Girls-in-ICT project will see a Mentorship Day on Tuesday, 9th July, where “leading women in various ICT workplaces,” will meet with the girls. The programme will climax on Wednesday, 10th July, which is when the presentation of awards from the regional competition will be held.
As a parting message, Hon. Owusu-Ekuful urged the girls never to give up even when studying became difficult. She used herself as an example, revealing that she previously sold charcoal for a living, but rose above those challenges to attain her current standing. “You can do even better than we have been able to achieve, because you’ve got more opportunities than we did,” she stated.
By Derrick Kafui Deti – Digital Economy Magazine
