Sawla Girls Model JHS Tops In National ICT Competition

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) education may be relatively new to a lot of basic and second cycle schools and students in Northern Ghana as compared to their counterparts in the Southern part of the country. 

However, conscious efforts by government and the private sector could yield enormous results especially when a not so popular and less endowed school such as Sawla Girls Model Junior High School in the Sawla/Tuna/Kalba District in the Northern Region won this year’s National ICT Quiz Competition.

The school, which was represented by Tomah Lydia, Adams Janaba and Gien Monica, scored a total of 69 out of 100 points to beat Darul Hardis Junior High School and Ho Polytechnic Junior High School (JHS) respectively to win this year’s competition.

Other contesting schools were Adom Model JHS from Nkwanta in the Volta Region and Pong Tamale M/A Junior High School also based in the Northern Region.  

The event was organized by Savana Signatures (SavSign) in collaboration with the Ghana Education Service (GES) with financial support from IICD and additional support from Eco Bank Ghana, Radach Lodge and Conference Center and Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC).

The quiz competition fell under SavSign’s Integration of ICT in Education Project (IIEP), a project being implemented by the organization in the Northern and Volta Regions of Ghana. The project sought to build the capacity of teachers, school administrators and pupils in the use of ICT tools in teaching, learning and managing school based data among other uses to improve their performances.

This year’s quiz competition which saw five schools from the Northern and Volta Regions of Ghana participating was also aimed among other things to facilitate the implementation of Ghana’s ICT in Education Policy.

The Northern Regional ICT Coordinator Mr. Alhassan Seidu who represented the Northern Regional Director of the GES, said ICT was the foundation of every economy and that the future of every nation depended on effective deployment of ICT. He thanked SavSign for the initiative describing the event as a “noble venture”.

Darul Hardis JHS represented by Abdulai Fuseina, Ahmed Arimiyaw and Mohammed Abdul-Haliq also scored 62 points to win the second position while Ho Polytechnic JHS represented by Ebenezer Afful, Isreal Ahua and Seyram Adadevoh scored a total of 56 points to take the third position.

The winning school, Sawla Girls Model JHS received a trophy, 2 refurbished desktop computers and a printer. The first runner-up, Darul Hardis JHS also received a trophy and two (2) refurbished desktop computers while the second runner-up received a trophy and a refurbished desktop computer.  

 

An initiative of SavSign, the quiz competition intended to promote ICT education in Ghana as well as develop the skills, interest and ability of the youth to effectively use ICT facilities to better their lives.

Executive Director of SavSign John Stephen Agbenyo, said though initiated as a regional event, the ICT quiz competition had been transformed to become a national event because of the overwhelming endorsement and acceptance by schools and for that matter the GES.

According to him, the competition was not about prizes to be won but about knowledge to be shared among the participating schools and their pupils. He admonished students to take their academic work serious especially the study of ICT.

Mr. Agbenyo thanked IICD for the support it had given to SavSign over the years and wished the participating schools the best of luck.