“GIRLS IN ICT”

May 01, 2016 AFC Column, Features / Columnists

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On Thursday 28th April, the CARICOM Secretariat spearheaded the 2016 “Girls in ICT” symposium held at the Arthur Chung Convention Centre for specifically for female secondary school students. CARICOM worked in close collaboration

with the E-Government Department of the Ministry of Public Telecommunications to facilitate an engrossing programme that attracted large groups of students from schools in Georgetown and its environs, and from some administrative regions.
Minister of Public Telecommunications, Cathy Hughes, delivered the feature address at the start of the programme.  Below are excerpts from her address.
“Knowledge is power!  No one can doubt that we live in a digitized age where information is the main driver in our lives – at home, at work, at school, at play, at church … in every aspect of living.
Information gives you power.  With it comes knowledge and ultimately understanding, education, and a means to improve your standard of living.  It is also a given that knowledge comes with great socio-economic benefits.
It is a fact that Guyana is still a male-dominated society, but this is changing slowly but surely.  Today, as opposed to 15 years ago, you will find at least one woman among the executive management of most private sector businesses and public sector corporations and agencies.   We still have a ways to go in order to claim real equality of the sexes, but the good part is this:-
With more women in government, with more women sitting at the head of businesses, and with non-governmental organizations focused on the rights of women, the pressure is on!  The call is getting louder for us to devise more programmes and more learning tools for girls and women.
We hear the call, and this government is even more committed to giving our women the tools and the knowledge to better their future prospects.  This programme, Girls in ICT, is not new, but it is beginning to attract more attention and support to:-

*  Reach as many young women as possible
*  To teach them about Information Technology
*  To show them the way to acquiring tertiary education in ICT and related disciplines, and
*  To help them create their own bright, lucrative futures.

There is one problem that turns out to be the biggest obstacle.  It is the fact that the majority of girls who take courses in Information Technology at high school do not continue with it into university.  The actual number of girls graduating from the Technology Faculty is decreasing.
The general belief is that our girls do not like Mathematics.  Ladies, Maths is one of the main courses in the Computer Science and Electrical Engineering Bachelor’s programmes.
But I have new information.  It says that the Computer Science Department at UG will introduce several new programmes in the next academic year. These programmes will offer wider choices and greater flexibility.  Our hope is that this ‘flexibility’ will attract more female students.  We are all determined to break that proverbial “glass ceiling”.
As I said earlier, we live in a world where almost every aspect of life is digitized.  Nearly every month a faster, more advanced versions of the equipment and instruments we use come on the market, and we are able to purchase them online on the same day!  Everything is instant, everything happens right now.  You have to react right away to new information or you get left out!
Unfortunately in Guyana females are under-represented in this sector.  That’s not the case in the USA, for example.  The ICT sector there was male-dominated from the time it came into being in the mid-1900s.  You do know about Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak of the Apple Company; about Bill Gates – the multi-billionaire who created Microsoft; you know the young Mark Zuckerburg whose brainchild is Facebook.  All men!
Here’s what we also know.  Inside of these same companies there are thousands of female engineers, software designers, webmasters, programmers and women who specialize in developing and upgrading the programmes that allow us to communicate in real time either on screen, by voice, and through face-time with voice and video.
The number of women who are making serious waves in this field is huge.  And this is not only happening in the USA.  It’s the same in Canada, Germany, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Jamaica, Trinidad, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Russia, and in South Korea.
The point is that in every single developed and developing country around the world, women are making serious contributions to business, to their economies, and to their own lives.
It has been our misfortune that ambitious young women have had to go overseas to further their education.  Many of them return to apply the knowledge and skills and post graduate qualifications including doctoral degrees.  These are the people who are the examples of the benefits you can derive from qualifications in Computer Studies, Electrical Engineering, Industrial Technology, and more.
WALKING THE TALK
President Granger is very committed to taking Guyana up on par with other countries in this part of the world at the very least.  He is as conscious as we all are of the need for our young people to become highly skilled in ICT disciplines.  Along the way we are making sure that every citizen becomes computer literate.  We have started the process, and very soon our plans for internet hubs and ICT Parks will become reality.
In the meantime, we want to encourage you to start to learn about the technologies that bring information to your smartphones and phablets.  Female ICT engineers are present in this room. Ask them questions, especially Dr. Samantha Scotland of the E-Government Department.  Ask her how it feels to be able to work shoulder to shoulder, and even a step ahead of some of our brightest male ICT engineers.
The Ministry of Public Telecommunications pledges to continue to encourage our young women (and men) to see ICT as only a short hill to conquer.  All that is required is your time and some effort.  The ultimate pay off will be financial comfort in a fast-growing country.”

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