New skills development initiative aims to integrate Ghanaian girls into STEM field

General News on Tuesday, February 12, 2019

Source: African News Agency

2019-02-12

With a significant dropout rate of girls from primary to secondary school and college, a new initiative in Ghana aims to improve the country's innovation, competitiveness and productivity by integrating more girls into the digital digital fold. . A report from the World Wide Web Foundation found that women in poor urban areas of developing countries were 50% less likely to use the Internet than men.

FemiTI is a project initiated by the DreamOval Foundation that aims to train young girls to develop problem-solving skills through programming and robotics. The first edition of FemiTI has just been concluded in partnership with SAP.

According to reports, 75% of girls in Ghana go to primary school, but there is a significant drop in the number of girls in high school and at the university. The DreamOval Foundation believes that the active development of women can bridge this gap by introducing them to STEM-related programs.

Francis Ahene-Affoh, Executive Vice President of the DreamOval Foundation, said, "We believe in the empowerment of women in the 21st century, who play a key role in the development process. disadvantaged who can be empowered numerically problem-solvers for their communities ".

Cathy Smith, CEO of SAP Africa, said this has implications for efforts to build peaceful, prosperous and sustainable communities. "Our support for FemiTI is part of our commitment to the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, particularly with respect to gender equality (# 5) and the # 39, quality education (# 4), Africa Code Week, Women in Data Science and #SheInnovates. "