Chronicle Editor
Leonard Ncube
PRIMARY and Secondary Education Minister Dr Evelyne Ndlovu has said Government has made significant strides in harnessing information communication technologies as a key device to addressing challenges facing the girl child especially in education.
Dr Ndlovu was speaking during a Ministerial Roundtable for Network of Women Digital Ministers that was organised to celebrate the International Day for Girls in ICT at the ongoing Transform Africa Summit in Victoria Falls yesterday.
The day was set aside by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and the event was organised by Smart Africa Alliance, organisers of TAS, with ICT and education ministers from the region attending.
Dr Ndlovu said the right to education for all has been a long standing commitment for Zimbabwe and the Constitution’s founding principle which affirm the need to ensure that girls are afforded an equal opportunity in education.
“Zimbabwe has achieved gender parity at primary and secondary school in terms of enrolment and completion rates. The country has a national gender policy which facilitates gender mainstreaming in all institutions with the goal of eradicating gender discrimination and inequalities in all spheres of life and development including in education and training,” said Dr Ndlovu.
She said Government included ICT as a learning area from infant school to upper secondary to afford girls an opportunity to access ICT.
“It is an aspiration of the Zimbabwe Government to leave no one, no place and no child behind in its commitment to transform education from Early Childhood Development to upper secondary,” she said.
The Minister said as part of its achievements, her ministry introduced Africa Code Week in schools targeting mostly girls to learn basic programming.
She said from 2018, the Ministry trained more than 5 000 teachers as trainer of trainers in digital programming to cascade ICT skills to schools.
E-learning platforms were also development especially during Covid-19 period where learning happened at home through digital platforms and smart classrooms.
This has also helped in understanding of the status of the gender digital divide in rural women and girl’s access to and use of computers and internet.
“As we celebrate global girls in ICT Day, let’s renew our commitment to empowering girls through education and ensuring that they have equal opportunities to succeed in the digital age.
“Let’s also watch out for space in our nations where the boy child might be lagging behind and plug those for a holistic development of our young people,” said the Minister.
The Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (Potraz) sponsored hundreds of school girls from Matabeleland North to attend the event.
Hwange High School pupil Enelet Mumba who is junior Member of Parliament for Hwange Central and junior Minister for Primary and Secondary Education said nothing should be done for youths without them as they better know their needs.
So I believe that if you change we need to include the youths, we need advisors for ICT for youths so we have day to day lives on ICT,” she said.
Girls in ICT day was first celebrated 25 years ago when a gender resolution was made at ITU level.
Discussions yesterday evolved around the need to capacitate girls and women with ICT skills to position them to take up decision and policy making positions.
Participants said empowering a woman enhances development in a society.
It emerged ministers of ICT portfolios in Africa are less than 20 percent which is a cause for concern considering women constitute more than half the population.-@ncubeleon
Online Reporter