By Abass Jalloh
The Ministry of Youth Affairs together with the Directorate of Science, Technology, and Innovation (DSTI) and the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) have introduced what is called Youth Innovation Challenge wherein students, business and creative people will be able to promote or showcase their various activities through virtual means.
Speaking at a Press Conference hosted by the Ministry of Information and Communications yesterday 3rd March 2022, the Minister of Youth Affairs, Mohamed Orman Bangura, described the initiative as “Generation Unlimited” wherein every person should “passionately” have a role to play and ignore the blame game for the benefit of improving globalization from all walks of life.
According to him, Generation Unlimited structured on strengthening, coordinating strategic partners to build on existing initiatives for young people and address the current gap through an innovative lens, leveraging technology to reduce the digital divide which he said is a “key priority” to the ministry.
The minister said that in connection with DSTI and UNICEF, they wanted to see how best they could connect the schools and learning process by bringing them together through the internet. He said that this initiative is not only limited to graduates or school-going persons but also other people with different innovative skills.
He said that as long as people are ready to change their narratives, they as a ministry are there to create the platform and bring necessary programs and that they want to see the efforts all partners are making and consolidating those efforts.
He said that they wanted to see how they could scale up learning and skills, adding that distance should not prevent people from exhibiting their skills. “Freetown is not Sierra Leone,” he said. “We want to see how we can diversify and reach out to hard-to-reach areas. Young people, devoid of where you find yourself at the moment, you will be able to get the opportunities that we believe in”, Bangura said.
“For you to be able to challenge globally, you should be able to stand up tall at the district level, regional level, and national level”, he said, adding that it will be “very challenging” for them as a government and members of the youth sector to put people at the forefront to challenge the competition outside at global level.
The Minister said UNICEF is hosting an exhibition today 4th March 2022 to showcase the impact of various projects implemented by the Government of Sierra Leone, private sectors, development partners, and the youths across the country that would improve opportunities, employment, and sustainable livelihoods for young people in Sierra Leone.
In her statement, the Director and Chief Operating Officer at DSTI, Michala Mackay, said that as part of the Human Capital Development, education is a flagship and that “if we are talking about youth engagement and capacitating our youth, the forefront of that is building educational capacity and using technology and science, for the most part, to do so”.
Ms. Mackay said that the concept of ‘Generation Unlimited’ means the generation of youth today should not leave the term capacity out.
She continued to say that at the camp hosting young players in this initiative, they would be working with stakeholders to train them in several aspects including compelling the school children who would be participating to use the digital learning passport that was launched recently. She said students would be having the opportunity to participate in “real-time” by answering questions and getting responses from others.
As part of the importance of the initiative, Ms. Mackay also cited the learning hub that was introduced in partnership with the Institute of Public Administration and Management (IPAM) which she said in two months would be also be launched in the other universities across Sierra Leone.
She added that DSTI in connection with the Ministry of Basic and Senior School Education (MBSSE) were in contact to assess how best they had connected over eleven thousand (11,000) schools with the internet so that they all can be afforded the opportunity to take part in the digital learning.
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