President Paul Kagame has called on global educationists to advocate and act to ensure girls have access to the digital resources and the skills they need.
Kagame was speaking during the ‘Building the Bandwith’ a virtual conference hosted by the Varkey Foundation, UNESCO, and CJ Cultural Foundation.
The meeting brought together education leaders to among others discuss ways to address the issue of women being left behind as technology advances.
In his remarks, the head of state shared Rwanda’s experience, saying that the current Covid-19 debacle significantly affected all aspects of national life, adding that education has not been spared.
However President Kagame hinted at the opportunity to re-engage in the cause of girl’s education so that they are not left behind.
He highlighted Rwanda’s efforts in making significant investments in digital infrastructure and training for the young people.
He revealed that the Rwanda Coding Academy admits 50 percent women and aims to resolve the shortage in engineers through a focused engineering program at high school level.
Similarly, Centres of Excellence in ICT, including Carnergie Mellon University-Africa, the University of Rwanda, and the AIMS, have dedicated scholarships for female candidates.
Narrowing this gap, he asserted, requires that governments sustain efforts for inclusive economic growth, guarantee security and community safety and continue to promote gender equality more generally.
Kagame reiterated the government’s commitment, as a key partner to UNESCO, regional and global initiatives to leverage technologies for girl’s education.
Education stakeholders say that over the last year, there has been a sudden and profound shift in the role of digital technology in education systems around the world.
Like Rwanda, many countries have turned to online learning platforms after temporarily closing their schools and other learning spaces due to lockdown measures imposed by the government.
However there are growing concerns that the global move toward online learning and other forms of educational technology could be leaving girls and young women behind which will consequently throw up another safety concern; girls’ safety online.
Educationists say, parents and caregivers can limit girls’ time online because of the heightened risk of sexual exploitation, cyberbullying and exposure to harmful content.
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