13-year old Paula Abena Yayra Quao was on Wednesday adjourned winner of the Greater Accra Girls In ICT programme
She took home a cash prize of 3000 Ghana cedis, a certificate of participation, a laptop, a plaque and a trip to the United States of America sponsored by the African Diaspora Forum.
She expressed her excitement about her victory and encouraged all girls to take ICT seriously.
She is a pupil of St. Syllabus R/C Basic School in the Ga West district.
Delma Rawiyyah Saeed from the Accra College of Education Demonstration , JHS 2 (Ayawaso West district) was second. She took away a cash prize of 2000 Ghana Cedis, a laptop, a certificate of participation and a plaque whiles Nicole Addy from Services Basic School, JHS 2 from the Kpone Katamanso district came third. She also took home a laptop, a cash price of 1000 Ghana Cedis, certificate of participation, and a plaque.
About to Girls-In-ICT Initiative
The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) launched the Girls-In-ICT project in 2012 to foster a global environment that empowers and encourages girls and young women to pursue education and jobs in the rapidly increasing field of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs).
Since 2017, the Ministry of Communications and Digitalisation, led by Mrs. Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, the Minister (MP, Ablekuma West constituency), has used the initiative as a platform to provide girls aged 9 to 15 (Upper Primary to Junior High School) with knowledge and skills in basic ICT and coding.
The initiative is executed with assistance from the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC) as the technical resource provider, and training is provided by the Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence (KACE). The program is additionally supported by MTN Ghana, National Communications Authority (NCA), American Towers Company (ATC), Ministry of Education, GIZ, and various other entities.
Selected girls from the participating region receive five days of training in basic ICT skills and coding. During this time, they create websites, computer games, and animated stories using Scratch to further their exploration of technology.
The program includes the following components:
● Training 100 teachers from the selected region.
● Training 1,000 girls in basic ICT skills from all districts in the region.
● A mentoring session where female ICT professionals share their personal and professional experiences to inspire and guide the girls in their future professions.
● A climax event involving the following:
o Distribution of 100 laptops to the best 100 girls
o Certificate of participation to all 1000 girls trained
o Presentation of awards to the 3 best performing girls
o Remarks from coaches and mentors
o A Speech by the Honorable Minister
o An open-day initiative in which the best performing 100 girls from the program’s chosen region are transported to Accra for a week to visit the headquarters of some Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), ICT companies and selected MoCD agencies to network with women in the technology sector in particular
The following achievements between 2017 and 2023 are noteworthy:
● 12,981 girls have been trained and mentored in Ashanti, Western, Central, Oti, Western North, North-East, Bono, Bono-East, Ahafo, Eastern, Savannah, and Northern Regions.
● 1,100 teachers trained to train additional females in ICT outside the program.
● 97 cyber labs have been established, and an additional 120 scheduled for this year.
● 1,776 laptops distributed to teachers and high-achieving girls.
The Ministry expects 3000 girls and 300 teachers from 3 regions (Greater Accra, Volta, and Ashanti) to benefit from the Girls-In-ICT initiative this year.
Source:Mybrytfmonline.com/Kwabena Nyarko Abronoma
