Miss Selma Agbevanu of Kabore Junior High School (JHS) Ho, emerged as this year’s best “Girls in ICT” performer in the Volta Region.

She beat a field of 99 other JHS girls shortlisted from more than 200 others who emerged winners in ICT quiz competitions held in 18 Community Information Communication centres in the region as part of this year’s “National Girls in ICT” celebration.

She won a printer for her school, a mobile telephone, tablet computer, a modem and a pen-drive for herself.

Miss Comfort Boateng of Saint Patrick Anglican School Kpando came second winning a printer for her school and tablet computer, pen-drive and modem for her personal use.

Miss Yasmine Fugar of AMI Preparatory School Akatsi was third and took away a printer for her school and a pen-drive and tablet computer.

Mawuko Girls Senior High School was cited for a special award while 97 other girls were presented with certificates of participation at a durbar in Ho.

The quiz competitions were organised by the Ministry of Communications in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, and Ministry of Science and Innovation.

The “Girls in ICT” was instituted by the International Communications Union to demystify ICT among girls and enhance their capacities in the application of the technology to their studies, and life in general.

In his keynote address, Dr Edward K. Omane Boamah said the Girls in ICT programme would be given greater momentum in the years to come.

He said girls must be groomed to vie for the more than two million jobs in the field of ICT that would up for grabs in the near future.

Dr Boamah said he is hopeful that, 20 years from now many girls who were trained under the “Girls in ICT programme would become ICT professionals of great repute. He advised the girls not to apply the technology for negative and dangerous purposes. Dr Boamah asked parents and guardians to encourage their daughters to acquire skills in ICT.

Mr Alex Kyeremeh, Deputy Minister of Education, Pre-tertiary, said girls must be groomed for careers in ICT because research has shown that they are preferred to their male counterparts as far as stable job mobility at work place is concerned.

He said there is the need for girls in basic and senior high school (SHS) “to possess a good range of learning experiences for 21 century ICT skills attainment at the end of their primary and secondary education”.

Mr Kyeremeh said girls at the basic level should be able to operate computers and applications in ICT enabled environment, search for information over the internet, create a short document using a word processor, and a short presentation with multimedia elements.

They should also be able to represent tables of information in word processor and spreadsheets, communicate over internet and collect data using ICT tools.

At the SHS level girls should be able to operate an interactive media environment, search independently for information over the internet, create a publication such as reports, pamphlet and newsletter using a word processor.

They should integrate digital media from different sources into a document, spreadsheet and presentation and create and edit media elements for multimedia presentation.

They should also use functions for calculations in a spreadsheet; represent data using graphs and charts in word processor and spreadsheets, communicate over internet and transfer collected data from ICT tools in computers.

Mr Kyeremeh said government is equipping basic and SHS’s with computers with internet connectivity.

“Funding is now available to put schools unto major platforms so that students can access information from schools in the country…” he said.