The 6^th Annual inter-secondary schools computer quiz organized by the Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) will hold on Friday, 28^th and Saturday, 29^th, November, 2008 at the Auditorium of School of Technology, Kano State Polytechnic, Kano. The objectives of the Quiz are to sensitize the school communities to the need for computers, encourage students to take computer studies seriously and aid advocacy on the need for school proprietors and governments to provide computers to schools.

About 50 schools from different parts of the nine states will be competing for the various prizes to be won at the competition. These include a new laptop for first place position, a new compute set for second place position and a refurnished computer for third place winners. Other prizes are a television set for the overall best student, a radio set for the best female participant and a scanner for the teacher of the best schools. Additionally, all participants will get a participation prize of two computer books each other are also other supporting prizes such flash memories, scholarships for training for both teachers and students of the participating schools

Last year 30 secondary schools from Kano, Jigawa, Bauchi and Katsina States took part in the competition which held in from 7-8, December 2008 at the Murtala Mohammed Library Complex, Kano.The top three winners last year were by Hauwa Memorial, Funtua, Katsina State, Government Girls Computer Secondary School, Roni, Jigawa State and Government Arabic Secondary School, Jama’are, Bauchi State, first, second and third respectively.

The two day event will start with an opening session to be chaired by Dr. Bala Mohammed, the Director of Kano State Social Re-orientation Agency which the Special Adviser to the Sokoto State Governor on IT will be Guest of Honor. The keynote address will be delivered by Dr. Bashir Galadanci, the Special Adviser to the Kano State Governor on Education and Information Technology. Other Guest include the National President of the Information Technology Association of Nigeria (ITAN), the Citizenship Manager of Microsoft Nigeria, Hajia Jummai Umar-Ajibola, the State Commissioner for Education, the Zonal Controller, Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC), Alhaji Adamu Amshi who will chair the second session , the Vice Chancellor of the Kano University of Science and Technology, Prof. Ibraheem Shehu Diso who will chair the final session and the Chairman House Committee of Education, House of Representatives, Hon. Faruk Lawan.

The second Annual inter-secondary schools computer quiz for Jigawa State organized by the Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) will hold on Tuesday, 25^th November, 2008 at the Conference Hall of the Jigawa State Library, Dutse. The objectives of the Quiz are to sensitize the school communities to the need for computers, encourage students to take computer studies seriously and aid advocacy on the need for school proprietors and governments to provide computers to schools.

Sixteen schools from different parts of the state will be competing for the various prizes to be won at the competition. These include a new computer set for first place position, a refurnished computer for second place position and a printer for third place winners. Other prizes are a television set for the overall best student, a radio set for the best female participant and a scanner for the teacher of the best schools. Additionally, all participants will get a participation prize of two computer books each

The three top schools will represent the state at the 6^th North ICT Competition which holds on 28^th and 29^th November, 2008 in Kano. Participants at the Kano event will include schools from at least eight other states across the north.

The occasion which will be chaired by the Special Adviser to the Jigawa State Governor on Information Technology, Alhaji Bala Ibrhaim has the State Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Prof. Ruqqayya Ahmed as Guest of Honor while the Head, Department of Computer, Jigawa State Polytechnic will deliver the keynote address

This year’s Annual ICT Quiz Competition for Secondary Schools organized by CITAD will take on the 5^th and 6^th December, 2008. The venue shall the Conference Hall of Mumbayya House, Bayero University, Kano. Since 2004, the organization has yearly organized the event which brings students of secondary schools to demonstrate their knowledge and skills of ICTs. Last year over forty schools from four states took part in the event, in addition to a special preliminary round for Jigawa State schools. This year over 60 schools from eight states would compete in the two-stage event. The first stage is the qualifying round which will hold in some of the states during the last week of November. Winners of the qualifying round will meet in Kano for the second and final stage of the competition. This year’s competition will be supported by a number of organizations including the Kano, Zamfara, Jigawa, Kaduna States Government, Nigeria Communications Commission, Microsoft Nigeria, and many other organizations. For more information contact citadev@gmail.com.

The Nigerian office of the UK development agency, Department for International Development (DFID) has donated 50 used computers to CITAD. The donation was routed through the Computer Aid International, which is a computer refurbishing and distribution partner of CITAD, based in the UK. Miss. Anne Musyoki of the West African Desk of CAI signed the donation acceptance paper on behalf of her organization.

CITAD intends to refurbish the computers and donate them to secondary schools. This gesture is part of the contribution of the organizations to support IT education in schools. The computers were handed over to CITAD representative, Malam Isyaku Garba on 28^th October in Abuja by the IT Administrator of DFID, Mr. Adesina Idris. The computers have since been brought to Kano and CITAD staff are working to refurbish them.

As part of its capacity building in ICT, CITAD has commenced a training programme for teachers of Government Secondary School, Gwale, in Gwale Local Government of Kano State. The training which began on 28^th October 2008 is at as a result of a request to CITAD by the Principal of the school who said the school needed assistance to get more teachers in IT for it to utilise its ETF-donated Diginet centre. The school is one of the five secondary schools that have received a set of 20 computers each from the ETF supported Schoolnet Nigeria. CITAD is manager of the schoolnet facilities in Kano State. The training which will last for four weeks would cover basic office skills as well as techniques of IT training. Ten teachers are taking part in this first round. All the schools under the Schoolnet Project are expected to begin implementing the newly approved national computer studies curriculum for secondary schools.