UNESCO donates 72 laptops to secondary schools in FCT

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.
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.