The Chief Executive Officer, Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications, Dr Kenneth Ashigbey, is calling on the State to empower the youth with skills for the future to lead the country to prosperity.
“Today’s world is an ICT dominated world and one of the ways to empower the young ones within this community and others with such skills is to make their education ICT oriented”, he noted.
Dr Ashigbey said this when the Chamber, in collaboration with the La Dadekotopon Education Directorate and Child Online Africa, held a Sensitisation Workshop for Basic and Junior High School (JHS) pupils in the La Dadekotopon Municipality, on Internet usage and fraud.
About 900 students who came from seven schools in the Adobetor Circuit, were taken through lessons in online protection, digital fraud; and the number of hours students must spend on the Internet.
The Chief Executive Officer, who was one of the facilitators, told the Ghana News Agency, that the sensitisation was part of their commitment of giving back to society, having operated in La for 11 years.
“It’s been said that in the next 11 years, artificial intelligence will add more to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the world than gold, oil and others.
“How are we preparing the young ones in the LaDMA area to take advantage of it,” he asked.
During the interaction session of the workshop, particularly on how young ones fall prey to extort on the Internet, some pupils at the JHS level shared how some rogue elements tried to lure them into consuming pornographic materials.
While some said they were regular users of Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat, others said they could spend six to eight hours on the Internet and/or social media.
Some also mentioned Regina Daniels, Richie Donalds and Shatta Wale as their role models.
The Executive Director of Child Online Africa, Madam Awo Aidam Amenyah, urged the students to use a few hours on the Internet, concentrate their time and energies on their books, be responsible and stop taking photos to expose their bodies.
She advised them to read and analyze any notification before opening, report any threats on their social media by calling or texting 292 and or send a WhatsApp message on the National Cyber Security number: 0501603111.
In a meeting with some teachers from the circuit, Madam Amenyah urged them to be mindful of their ethical considerations as facilitators in their schools.
“There are some things that you should not even do with your students. You are not supposed to have WhatsApp chats with your students after 2200 hours, you must not have your students on your Facebook page,” she added.
The School Improvement Support Officer, Adobetor Circuit, La DadeKotopon Education Directorate, Mrs Millicent Lawson Adokpa, said the sensitisation was timely as it helped the students to learn both the good and bad sides of phone and internet.
She said the teachers would engage those who had benefited in peer-reviewed activities on the key areas to educate other children and their communities at large.
The Chamber will replicate the programme in other Communities and teach the children coding.
