By
Victoria Agyemang /Nana Oye Gyimah, GNA
Cape Coast, Nov.09,
GNA – More than 980 girls selected from
primary and junior High Schools (JHS)
across the Central Region have benefitted from this year’s National Information,
Communication and Technology (ICT initiative) training workshop for girls.
The two-week ‘Girls
in ICT initiative’ organized under the auspices of the Ministry of Communications and sponsored
by the National Communications Authority (NCA) and Ghana Investment Fund for
Electronic Communications, is a programme that seeks to expose young girls to
basic programming and creative skills to improve their critical thinking
abilities as they develop their career interest.
It also inspires and
empowers young girls to take up career roles in technology related subjects and
careers as well as close the gap in that area, which is generally perceived as
male dominated.
Closing the workshop
held on the theme: “Transforming Lives and Changing Attitudes” at the
University of Cape Coast (UCC), Mrs. Ursula Owusu Ekuful, the Minister of
Communications underscored the importance of instilling the “can do spirit” in
girls to demystify the notion that technology careers were too complex to be
pursued by girls.
The closing of the
workshop coincided with the celebration of the Girls in ICT Day in the Region.
“The initiative
is a critical national imperative that gives girls the skills they need to be
able to succeed and that is why the International Telecommunications Union
(ITU) institutionalized the girls in ICT initiative as a global one celebrated
annually by it member states”.
She noted that ICT was the fastest growing
sector that permeates all sectors and facets of the human life globally and
encouraged corporate entities to support the initiative to train and encourage
more girls into that field.
Mrs. Frema Osei
Opare, Chief Of Staff who was the Guest of Honour, said ICT ensured a dramatic
transformation of the world and enabled individuals, firms, and the Government
to have better access to information and knowledge.
Mr. Kwamena Duncan,
the Central Regional Minister, said ICT had been the driving force for
socio-economic and political development of every country, which was changing
the world and transforming societies for the better.
The Regional
Minister, appealed to all to champion and invest in the initiative as it would
help inform and educate young girls especially in remote areas about the
essence of having insight of ICT, which also lift the social and cultural
barriers.
Mrs. Gifty Twum
Ampofo, Deputy Education Minister, urged girls to pursue ICT related careers
and not consider it as a male dominated field, adding that a lot of women who
defied the odds, were now successful in their career areas.
She said it was the
Ministry of Education’s vision to collaborate further with the Ministry of Communication
to get more centres in all schools starting from the basic to the highest level
to empower more girls in ICT.
At the end of the
programme, the best 100 trainees, coordinators, and teachers were given laptops
each while the first 20 girls received free Turbo internet connection for six
months.
They would also have
ICT laboratory centres built or upgraded in their respective schools.
The best three were awarded cash prices in
addition to the general prices.
The Minister of
Communication later promised to build an ICT centre for the five special
schools in the region including, the Cape Coast School for the Deaf and Blind.
GNA
