The Association of Professional Women Engineers of Nigeria has provided scholarship, from the primary to university level, for 60 female students across Nigeria.
This was disclosed by APWEN National Vice President, Mrs. Elizabeth Jumoke Eterigho, during the 2020 International Women in Engineering Day in Minna.
Mrs. Eterigho said that the students were drawn from the six geo-political zones and the scholarship would be co-sponsored by the NNPC.
“In six states across the six geographical zones, we have picked pupils from primary schools on the scholarships by APWEN which is co-sponsored by NNPC.
“We will sponsor them from primary level to university if they read engineering but if they do not read engineering in universities, the scholarship will stop,” Mrs. Eterigho said.
“We have picked 10 pupils from each state and now, there are 60 of them but we have plans to increase the number over the years. This is because we want to help the girl-child to pick interest in STEM subjects and engineering as a field of study at the university,” she added.
The Minna Chapter APWEN Chairman, Arfa Haq, said the association was encouraging female pupils to go into the engineering field and not see engineering or STEM subjects as difficult to handle.
She disclosed that after schools reopening, the association would train STEM teachers on how to teach science subjects effectively and interestingly so that more students will be more interested in STEM subjects which include Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics.