The Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications in partnership with the Institute of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Professionals, Ghana have trained 200 pupils and 70 teachers in schools in the Akyemansa District of the Eastern region on the fundamentals of coding and programming to help them design applications.
The training, which was part of a two-year coding caravan the two organizations have embarked on, was purposed to create digital awareness among the pupils, especially those in the rural areas and equip them with basic ICT skills and digital tools that would help them come up with business ideas to solve societal problems.
The pupils were trained in coding, 3D printing, animations, and development of applications, among other skills by ICT Instructors who took them through the training.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications, Dr Ing Kenneth Ashigbey said for the country to be transformed, it was critical for it to take advantage of the 4th Industrial Revolution where the country should ride on Artificial Intelligence or the use of digital transformation tools to solve societal issues.
He revealed that for that reason, his outfit has partnered with the Institute of ICT Professionals and has for the past two years embarked on a coding caravan to train pupils in schools across the country, especially those in the rural areas to train them on coding and the use of digital tools to create business ideas to solve societal issues.
“We chose the rural or remote areas to give pupils in those areas the opportunity to also learn this technological skill so that they will be empowered to use the skills learnt to solve their community problems and there will be no need to travel to urban areas before such problems are solved,” he said.
It was his hope that the training would inflame a hunger for technological skills in the pupils who would in turn train others to adopt the skills for business purposes.
Dr Ing Kenneth Ashigbey stated that an ICT and Coding Laboratory would be set up soon by the member of parliament for the area, revealing that the laboratory would be a center to train and polish more pupils and revealed competition on coding would be held among pupils who would be encouraged to bring up interesting business ideas that could be harnessed to solve societal problems for the development of the country.
For his part, the Executive Director of the Institute of ICT Professionals, Dr David Gowu indicated that the country has over 50 percent of young people who could be trained and given such coding skills using digital tools to enable them to solve the many societal issues and cause the development of the country.
He indicated that such empowerment of the young generation was necessary if the country wanted to transform into a first-class country.
Mr Gowu called on stakeholders in the private and government sector, as well as philanthropists to pull resources together and help to provide more computers for pupils to enhance their learning and practice.
Source: Ama Tekyiwaa Ampadu Agyeman (The Spectator)
