International Girls in ICT Day is celebrated worldwide every year on the fo Thursday of April (25 April 2025). Girls in ICT Day provides an opportunity for girls and young women to see and be exposed to the benefit of ICT in enabling their career and aspiration. To date, over 377,000 girls and young women have taken part in more than 11,400 celebrations of International Girls in ICT Day in 171 countries worldwide.

As a result of the COVID-19 situation, the reliance on ICT to support the ‘new norm’ have become evident and widespread. The ICT sector is a growing sector for education in both developed and developing countries. This means that qualified female students in technical fields around the world have significant opportunities available to them. These are excellent opportunities in particular for highly skilled girls and young women who are still a minority when it comes to STEAM education and careers. Developing initiatives and activities to promote and encourage girls to take up study in STEAM and ICT is hence a requirement.

The theme for International Girls in ICT Day in 2024 is “Leadership“, emphasizing the need for strong female role models in STEM careers. Despite women filling 40% of high-skill occupations globally, their participation in ICT related fields remains low, with a notable absence in software development, engineering, and technology research.

The leadership gender gap is most pronounced in STEM fields, with women often occupying junior or support roles and facing limited advancement opportunities. The 2024 theme focuses on empowering girls and young women for leadership roles in STEM, addressing the challenges and promoting a more equitable future in the sector.

The Girls in ICT Day Thailand initiative aims to encourage girls and young woman to pursue studying STEAM, enhance their level of digital skill, and raise awareness on meaningful and safe use of ICT.

Under the initiative, the program in 2024 aims :

1. To enhance the digital literacy of girls and young woman, particularly learning leadership, ICT application, and use of digital technology which supports Thailand’s Digital Economy plan and Thailand 4.0 which emphasis on Leadership in Digital Transformation, Digital Skills Empowerment and Experiential Learning Journey.
2. To encourage girls and young women to utilize ICT meaningfully and strengthen the Girls in ICT day online community in Thailand, as well as other countries in Asia and the Pacific.
3. To explore partnerships with various government and UN agencies to continue the support to digital literacy and digital skills development after the event.

The most recent PISA 2022 reveals that In terms of gender equality, Thai girls scored higher than boys in mathematics by 16 points. Across OECD countries, boys outperformed girls by five points. While girls slightly outperformed boys in science (by two points) on average across OECD countries, in Thailand girls outperformed boys in science by 20 points. When asked about their desired professions, about one in five boys in Thailand want to work as an engineer or science professional at the age of 30, while one in seven girls want to do so. In addition, about three in seven high-performing girls expect to work in health-related professions, while one in five high-performing boys expect to do so. Only some 3% of boys and 1% of girls in Thailand expect to work in ICT (information and communications technology) -related professions.

The above context reflects on how education system could shed light for ICT related professions for girls while they have demonstrated high achievement than their boys’ cohort. To demystify, UNICEF in collaboration with the Bureau of Information and Communication Technology, OPS as well as the Bureau of Teaching and Learning Technology, OBEC including the Institute of Promoting Science and Technology jointly initiate STEAM female secondary school teachers networking in Thailand to exchange their experience of interacting with their secondary schools students, especially girls students both in classes as well as extra curriculum activities. The reflection, utterance, and recommendations will be summarized and presented as a part of celebrating an International Girls in ICT Day Thailand. This initiative is resulted in a dialogue among STEAM female teachers since 2021 which UNICEF has hosted in collaboration of those agencies mentioned. Therefore, the ICT female teachers network would start to be 1st one to support STEAM female secondary schools teachers networks in Thailand in 3 consecutive years.

Highlights of the Training

Agenda

Day One: May 3, 2024

Essential message, principals, and reminders for Facilitator

• Dr Kusalin Musikul, Assistant to the Director of IPST

Speakers:

• Mr Jakkrapong Juntawong, Project Coordinator
• Mr Waiyawut Thanabut, Rapporteur

• Globe Thailand Team

Facilitator:

• Dr Rangsun Wiboonuppatum, UNICEF.

Speakers

• Mr Ittikorn Changsakol, Director of Bureau of ICT, MOE
• Ms Atsuko Okuda, Regional Director for ITU Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
• Dr Antonia Mandry, Education Specialist, East Asia and Pacific Regional Office, UNICEF

Speaker

• Dr Kusalin Musikul, Deputy Director of IPST

Lead Facilitator

• Mr Jakkrapong Jantawong

Each group will be clustered in small teams in so each person could exchange sufficiently. Each team will nominate representatives to address the given questions in the plenary in the following days. This will allow each team to exchange ideas and collectively work as a team to pitch the group summary to the MOE.

Facilitator:

• Ms Waraporn Raksaphram, Climate Change Officer, UNICEF Thailand (TBC)

Speakers:

• Dr Suwit Bungbau, DLTV Director
• Dr Rangsun Wiboonuppatum, UNICEF