Today, April 28, 2022, Exquitec Education Technology joins the rest of the world in commemorating International Girls in ICT Day, a day dedicated to highlighting the critical need for more girls and women in ICT fields. Girls and young women need safe and reliable access to the internet and digital tools in order to excel in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, according to the theme of this year’s event, “Access and Safety.”
Access and Safety was chosen as the theme goal for 2022 as a first step toward females being able to safely use the digital environment. According to the International Telecommunication Union’s most recent data, women use the Internet at a rate of 48% worldwide, compared to 55% for men. This indicates that the global Internet gender divide is 12.5 percent in percentage terms. Women will be unable to acquire critical digital skills and interact effectively in digital environments if they are unable to access the Internet and feel secure online. As a result, their opportunities to pursue careers in STEM-related fields will be diminished.
In our increasingly globalized and digital society, science, technology, and innovation are driving forces. However, women make up less than 30% of STEM occupations. In Nigeria’s tertiary institutions, for example, around half as many girls as boys study STEM subjects. With this disparity expected to persist into the twenty-first century, it is critical to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion of women in STEM fields. Girls in ICT’s primary objective is to increase young women and girls’ [ages 12 to 24] presence and digital skills in STEM fields, particularly ICT.
As a result, Exquitec Education Technology hosted a four-day ICT workshop for selected secondary school girls in Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State, Nigeria, with the goal of increasing girls’ access to and safety in STEM/ICT. Throughout the workshop, inspiring female role models shared their experiences and testimonies about overcoming obstacles as women in their various fields. Furthermore, the girls received hands-on training in application development, web chat, and infographic design. Additionally, in support of the global dialogue on access and safety in STEM/ICT, Dr Olurinola Oluwakemi, CEO of the ICT institute, and Dr Sekinat Folorunsho, an AI and Machine Learning specialist, shared their perspectives on the critical need to continue developing solutions and ideas for lowering barriers to access and improving online safety for girls and young women aspiring to pursue STEM studies and careers.