Ebonyi to represent southeast at quiz competition

EBONYI State will represent the southeast in this year's National Information Technology quiz competition for secondary schools holding in Abuja.At a keenly contested state finals held in Enugu on Tuesday, Ebonyi state contingent beatthe four other states finalists of Enugu, Anambra, Abia and Imo to the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th positions respectively to emerge the zone's champion.Speaking at the event, Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Prof Cleopas Angaye, said that the quiz competition was in continuation of efforts towards positioning the country as a key player in the current global digital economy through the development of a critical mass of IT proficient personnel.He said that ICTs were now the bedrock for national survival and development in a rapidly changing global environment, stressing that it has assisted human capital especially in the areas of teaching aids, research, online education as well as information on available jobs.Explaining further the importance of the ICT,Angaye said that the government has decided to equip the Nigerian youths who constitute the largest percentage of the population on the use of technologies to achieve globally competitive manpower.He said such was responsible for incorporating IT in the nation's educational curricula as well as the Catch Them Young Programme, which provides excellent incubator for children as Information Technology scientists.'It is mainly targeted at the youths in order to develop and implement a long term strategy for human capacity building in Information Technology in Nigeria', he said, adding that the successful execution of the programmein all states of the federation would have positive impact in the learning and application of applied knowledge-based systems to the children.He said that other initiatives along this line includes the review of IT curricula in schools, scholarship scheme for Masters and PHD students in core IT areas, training University lecturers, research grants, support of IT andawareness creation among others.Declaring the event open, Enugu State Commissioner for Education, Dr Simeon Ortuanaya said the state government has embarked on an initiative to improve standards of education in the state.He thanked the federal government for reintroducing the schools competition, stressing that it would promote learning and reading habits among the youths.
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