Experts Urge Investment in Digital Resources to Advance Girls’ Education

Uchechukwu Nnaike

Digital learning presents an excellent opportunity to bridge the digital gender divide and bring quality education to every girl amidst the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Against this background, stakeholders in the education-technology space have been advised to invest in digital resources to enhance the quality of education among girls.

This was the takeout of the conversations during the October edition of EdTech Monday, an initiative of the Mastercard Foundation in partnership with Co-Creation Hub.

The virtual roundtable moderated by a social engineering practitioner, Joyce Daniel, featured panellists such as National Programme Officer, UN Women Nigeria, Patience Ekeoba, Associate Product Marketing Manager, Google, Temilade Adelakun and former Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development, Akwa Ibom State, Eunice Thomas; and a University of Benin undergraduate, Oseme Eigbodion.

At the roundtable with the theme ‘Advancing Girls’ Education through Digital Learning’, Thomas stated that there was a need to address unconscious biases against the girl child to ensure that digital learning is made possible and interesting. She maintained that with the world going digital, the time has come to let Nigerian girls understand the significance of digital learning to their overall growth.

She said there had been issues around policy implementation in the education sector, but the solution lies in stakeholders working together to monitor and evaluate the implementation.

In her remarks, Adelakun noted that government and other stakeholders have a big role in eradicating gender bias and enabling access to digital learning for girls.

Ekeoba identified the high cost of digital education, online bullying, negative cultural or social norms, and ignorance as challenges confronting improving digital learning among girls.

While calling on the government to invest in digital learning, she urged tech entrepreneurs and other stakeholders to introduce user-friendly technology, which would go a long way to supporting girls in digital learning.