Edo to support STEM education for women

As a way of encouraging more women to tap into the potential of digital technologies, Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, has pledged to sustain efforts aimed at providing the enabling environment and infrastructure to support Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education in the state.

Obaseki spoke at the commemoration of the International Girls in ICT Day in Benin City, marked yearly by the United Nations and its sister agencies, to draw attention to the critical need for more girls and women to get involved in the Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) sector.

Obaseki, who described this year’s theme, ‘Access and Safety, as Apt’, said his government would continue to pursue reforms to guarantee safe and reliable access to the internet and other digital tools to enable more girls and young women to thrive in the 21st century, which is driven by technology and innovation.

The governor said that the day provided yet another opportunity to step up efforts to encourage more girls and young women to pursue STEM education and explore new roles in digital technologies, considering the important role women play in solving societal problems and advancing socio-economic development.

“Women make up half of the world’s population and they must not be discriminated against, relegated or left behind if we are committed to quickly recovering from the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic and finding lasting solutions to global challenges that threaten human existence and survival, including the global food crisis,” the governor said.

According to Obaseki, Nigerian women must be empowered, leveraging their creative thinking and innovative capacity to find solutions to some difficult and complex global problems through STEM.

The governor tasked global stakeholders on the need for  collaborations and partnership to inspire and encourage more women to pursue education and careers in STEM fields, support  them to proffer solutions to societal problems through technology.

He added that his government would continue to support more women and girls in the state to realise their potential, noting that his administration had embarked on several reforms and programmes to equip them with the requisite skills to survive in a technology-driven world.