'Sensitize female students to study sciences'

By Darious Magara 

KAMPALA - Dr.  Mercy Amiyo, a lecturer at Makerere University, has called on parents to sensitize their daughters to help discard the fear of studying sciences.

She said although science courses have a background of mathematics they are as pursuable by girls as by boys.

“Parents should encourage their daughters to study science courses and should break the stereotype that sciences are best done by male students.”

Mathematics and computing have elements of logic and thinking, which can be managed by both sexes, added Amiyo, who lecturers at the school of computing and information technology.

She said this at the closing ceremony of this year’s Flock of Birds summer training in Ggaba. She handed over certificates to 16 trainees who included two females.

Flock of Birds is a Dutch design firm that offers software development skills to Ugandans.

The latest training had a number of institutions take part, including: Makerere University, Kyambogo University, Uganda Technology and Management University (UTAMU), Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST) and Aptech.

Amiyo urged the trainees to impact the society that surrounds them with ICT skills as ICT specialists by solving community problems with software among other technical products.
 

The summer school training lasted two-and-a-half months. (Credit: Darious Magara)

Harriet Ayebare, who represented UTAMU, said universities and other professional training organisations should devise means of attracting females to study science subjects/courses.

She said at UTAMU they have employed more females in the ICT department and have lowered the entry requirements for female applicants as a measure of encouraging them to pursue sciences.

The participants for this year’s edition were trained in Mendiz development platform, client engagement, team work, communication and entrepreneurial skills.  This was over a period of two-and-a-half months at Makerere University.

Eugene Miheso Swinnerston, a business consultant and developer at Flock of Birds, said they run an ICT department which is a professional ICT consulting firm.

“Flock of Birds gives opportunities to the African youth through education, training and employment to enable them to become self-sustainable and develop their skills,” he said.

Many universities in Uganda produce a lot of graduates/professionals but a smaller percentage of this have the practical experience.

“The Summer Traineeship introduction focuses on mentoring and fine tuning fresh university graduates and on-going tertiary level students into becoming fine developer consultants,” added Miheso.

A developer consultant is a person who supports the whole product development and implementation process.

Miheso, a software engineer, said individuals who are highly skilled in extracting logic for programs, coding in any field but more specifically Java and analysis are in bigger demand.

Flock of Birds founder Ans de Jager lauded Makerere University and UTAMU as some of their partners that have provided space and learning equipment for the summer school.