Girls and women have been urged to embrace science education to enable them take advantage of the many opportunities science and technology present.
The charge was given at an event organized by Helpline Foundation for the Needy Abuja, in commemoration of this year’s International Day of Girls and Woman in Science.
The event which was organized in partnership with Make a Difference for the Needy Foundation and Association of Wives of Traditional Rulers in FCT, was designed to create awareness and an interactive session for school girls and women about importance of eco emcee education.
The President of Helpline Foundation for the Needy, Dr. Jumai Ahmadu, while also urging parents to encourage the girl-child to study science related subjects, equally called on teachers to pay special attention while teaching the girl-child to entice them into science education.
According to her, the theme of the Day: “Equal Access and Participation in Science for Girls in Accelerating Progress Towards National Development” was timely and couldn’t have come at a better time.
Dr. Ahmadu, who spoke through the Foundation’s Coordinator on Special Programme, Onoja Arome Godwin, noted that a significant gender gap has persisted throughout the years at all levels of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines all over the world.
She therefore stressed the need for donor agencies to maintain gender equality and inclusiveness in grants giving and scholarships, so that girls and women can maximise their potentials in science.
She added that even though women have made tremendous progress towards increasing their participation in higher education, they are still under-represented in the STEM fields.
“A brief rundown of the statistical position of women in research fields of science to educate you more to mention only four observations women are typically given smaller research grants than their male colleagues and, while they represent 33.3% of all researchers, only 12% of members of natural science academies are women in cutting edge fields such as artificial intelligence, only one in five professionals (22%) is a woman.
“Despite a shortage of skills in most of the technological fields driving the Fourth Industrial Revolution, women still account for only 28% of engineering graduates and 40% of graduates in computer science and informatics. Female researchers tend to have shorter, less well-paid careers“, she stated.
Highlighting contributions girls and women to national development in science, she said: “However, we cannot reduce this awareness, because we are seeing some little results for as long as we live we must continue to encourage our feminine gender to study science through it rigours and making them know that becoming a scientist does not correlate with gender issues but a ready mind.
The occasion which featured talks on STEM product development and design, thrilled the girls with talks on social media content design and development, as well as coding. They also had practical teachings on production of solar phone charger system.
The world’s annual event was attended by a handful of women and hundreds of female students drawn from public and private schools across the nation’s capital.
Ime N
