Study highlights role of ICT on gender education

A study has highlighted some insight roles of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in elevating gender education on the continent with particular reference to South Africa.

Announcing the completion of the study, the Project Leader at ICTeum Consulting, Ms Tina James and Ronel Smith of Meraka Institute, both of South Africa, said in a press statement that the exercise is a comprehensive outline on the status of women in high-level ICTs in South Africa.

According to them, the study which is comes in three parts, noted that a separate manual of possible interventions, has been produced alongside the status report.

This, they also said, involves the mapping out of six possible programmes with a breakdown of activities and possible role players should take to ensure that these actions forward and beyond the paper works.

The third report equally shares international experiences, with specific emphasis on Finland.
“This has provided useful insights for consideration in addressing South Africa ’s needs,” they added, stressing that the three documents could be accessed at: http://women-in-ict.meraka.csir.co.za.

In addition, the project pointed out that the report looks at how girls and women are progressing or otherwise, in the education system and the workplace.

“It presents gender-disaggregated data on the current situation and reflects on the perceptions of women in ICTs, including those in leadership positions,” our correspondent was informed.

Emphasising that there has been some improvement in the participation of women in the sector, but the numbers are still low and increasing the levels of participation requires urgent attention.
Various support mechanisms, the study said, are in place to help women in the ICT sector but they are fragmented and uncoordinated.

“Recommendations for addressing these needs have been expanded in the manual of interventions,” they said.

The study funded by the Embassy of Finland, South Africa was the result of a South African-Finnish partnership between the Meraka Institute (CSIR), icteum consulting and the University of Oulu, Finland (Kajaani Consortium).Other collaborators in the project, consists of Human Sciences Research Council, WomensNet and the Tshwane University of Technology.

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