Ahead of International Women’s Day (IWD) on 8 March, Camara Zambia has some uplifting news, as its operations there show there has been a huge uptake in the number of girls doing computer studies.
Camara Zambia is one of the operations run by Camara Education, an Irish charity registered in six African nations, including Zambia, which provides education hubs for children in areas where access to technology isn’t readily available.
For the past year, the Zambian operation, with support from Irish Aid, has been improving the learning environment for grade 8 and 9 Zambian pupils using ICT.
Now, the first batch of results are available and, rather upliftingly, show improved educational outcomes in the schools Camara is working with in the provinces of Lusaka, Copperbelt and southern Zambia.
From Camara Zambia’s findings, there has been a significant overall increase of 10pc in computer studies pass rates among girls in the project schools versus the provincial average, compared with a rate of 8pc for boys.
Huge improvements seen
Likewise, girls in the project schools out-performed the provincial average in all three provinces and, according to Camara Education, it expects this percentage to increase substantially over the course of the project.
According to a previous UNICEF report, Zambia has one of the continent’s lowest rates of access to education for girls, with the literacy rate among 15-to-24-year-old women being 58.5pc, compared to 70.3pc of 15-to-24-year-old men.
Camara Zambia CEO, James Murdoch, said of the results: “We are really excited at Camara Zambia to see such strong improvements in exam results from girls who have access to Camara Learning Centres. Improving education is the key to helping children to have a brighter future.”
Women Invent is Silicon Republic’s campaign to champion the role of women in science, technology, engineering and maths. It has been running since March 2013, and is kindly supported by Intel, Open Eir (formerly Eircom Wholesale), Fidelity Investments, Accenture and CoderDojo.
