Girls encouraged to venture into ICT

The Omanhene of Essikado traditional area, Nana Kobina Nketsiah V has urged young girls to develop an interest in Information Communication and Technology (ICT)to create opportunities for them in the job market.

He said the future was ICT, since everything was now technologically inclined, emphasising on the need for young girls to take education seriously.

Nana Kobina Nketsiah V explained that, real education made a person critically minded and therefore it was the responsibility of the young girls to think critically about the future by writing their own problems and finding solutions to them.

Nana Nketsiah V said this in his remarks as the chairman at this year's National Girls in ICT day held in Takoradi on the theme "Expand Horizons, Change Attitudes".

The day jointly organised by the Ministry of Communication and the International Telecommunication Union, aimed at inspiring more young girls to pursue careers in ICT was attended by more than 600 young girls drawn from nine districts in the Western region.

He encouraged young girls to write their own stories by making their own computers and creating their own cyber world since they were in a cyber age adding,"this is when one can boast of being ICT educated".

Nana kobina Nketsiah V appealed to the young girls to rewrite the story of Africa by expanding the horizon and changing attitudes to meet global needs.

The Deputy Minister of Education, Madam Gifty Twum - Ampofo on behalf of the Minister of Education, said the world had become ICT inclined and as such could not be taken for granted.

She explained that in Africa, one of the several challenges that had inhibited them from reaching their full potential was the use of ICT, which they could not run away from in this 21st century.

Madam Twum - Ampofo kicked against the school of thought that saw science and mathematics related courses as the preserve of boys, citing examples of how girls in the country were highly successful in those areas and called on parents and guardians to encourage them to take up those areas of study.

She indicated that the Ministry of Education was pursuing policies to ensure that more girls were able to pursue studies in the STEM subjects.

"My dear young ladies, I want you to know that you can be whatever you want to be if you study hard and stay focused. Do not ever allow anyone to tell you ICT is for boys because there is nothing about it that makes it unsuitable for girls", she said.

The Deputy Minister of Education urged young girls never to take NO for an answer on the study of courses such as science, mechanical engineering and ICT as technology was ruling lives.

She encouraged them to be inspired by the achievements of successful women who made it in the technological field and continued to blaze that trail for their own purpose and for the little ones behind.