Accra, Aug. 26, GNA- The Ashesi University, near Accra, emerged the best among eight other educational institutions in a website development competition for schools, which started in April this year, Professor Christine Kisiedu, Department of Information at the University of Ghana, Legon, announced in Accra on Friday.

The Ashesi University received a computer and its accessories and the Central University College, in Accra, which came second got one thousand dollars as its prize while Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) took the third position and was given 600 hundred dollars.

The other participants included, University of Education, Winneba, Pope John Secondary School, Student Representative Council of KNUST and two individual students from University of Ghana, Legon.

The competition, which was organised by Regional Information Network for Africa (RNAF), was one of the many programmes that have been planned as part of activities of the United Nations World Summit on Information Society to be held in Geneva by the end of this year. The pilot competition took place in 2002 in Cote d'Ivoire, Mauritania, Mozambique, Niger and Sudan.

Prof. Kisiedu said it was important for Ghanaians and Africans to develop websites with local content.

She said the selection of the best website designer was based on a decisive factor and that some schools were already working in line with the criteria for the programme.

Prof. Kisiedu said RINAF was a worldwide organisation that aimed at bridging the digital divide in society and bringing global information more closer to the ordinary person.

The Reverend K. Dadebo, Cordinator of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in education programmes of the Ministry of Education and Sports, said professional websites should be usable, marketable, accessible, easily maintainable, have website standards, backend implications and design psychology among others components.