Abuja – The United Nations Scientific, Educational and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), on Monday in Abuja donated 72 laptop computers to 18 Secondary Schools in the Federal Capital Territory.
Mr Benoit Sossou, the Acting Director/ Representative, UNESCO Regional Office in Abuja, who presented the laptops, asked the beneficiaries to use them for effective teaching of Introduction to Communication and Technology in their various schools.
The beneficiaries include; Government Secondary Schools in Jabi, Kuje, TudunWada, Gwarinpa, Garki, Maitama, Wuse, Nyanya among others.
He said Samsung Computer Company had handed over 1,300 computers to UNESCO to complement materials the organisation had planned to give to schools in six geo-political zones.
“ With this new initiative, UNESCO and its partner, Samsung Electronics, is today making a presentation of laptops to secondary schools in the FCT to further boost the learning and development of mobile apps.
“ We believe that in the nearest future, we shall have a large group of young skilled app developers,’’ he said.
Mobile apps are software applications developed specifically for use on small, wireless computing devices, such as smart phones and tablets, rather than desktop or laptop computers.
He added that UNESCO had earlier organised one month training for some students from the beneficiary schools, under the UNESCO Youth Mobile Training, on mobile apps development.
According to him, the Youth Mobile Training is one of several organisation’s programmes aimed at enabling universal knowledge access and preservation of information, enhanced ICT skills for opening solutions.
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Sossou said the Initiative was built on the experience of many worldwide initiatives that introduce young people to computer science programming.
He added that the initiative was to build on experiences targeting young women who were vastly underrepresented in the field.
“UNESCO therefore, intends to link existing competitors to each other through the creation of the first global list of app competitors which will encourage trained students to submit apps for prizes,“ he said.
In a remark, Mr Oniwago Saheed, Principal, Government Secondary School, Jabi, who spoke on behalf of the beneficiaries, appreciated UNESCO and its partners for the donation.
According to him, the students would benefit by acquiring high-level 21st century skills and confidence to develop and promote mobile apps to resolve local issues of sustainable development.
“Teachers and principals will benefit by teaching a new innovative course in mobile apps development, acquiring ICT-pedagogy skills and connecting a school to other schools nationally and globally,’’ he said. (NAN)
