More than 20,000 children were trained in the basics of computer programming from October 1 to 10, 2015 as part of the African Code Week. Organized under the theme “Computer code is the language of the 21st century and our children must master it”, this event was held in 17 African countries. The objective is to give the little ones the basic tools to enter a job market resolutely oriented towards new technologies.
Indeed, according to recent statistics from the World Bank, only 1% of students on the continent leave the education system with computer skills. Digital will be one of the major sectors of the world economy from the next decade.
“Learning to design a website, software or even a mobile application could help tackle the unemployment problem,” said Lucie Jagu, one of the project leaders. But to achieve convincing results in the medium term, some like Obin Guiakou, co-founder of Baby Lab, and ambassador of the initiative in Côte d’Ivoire, propose “that schools install this program so that students can continue to learn by themselves. And why not put the computer code in the school curricula… ”
Depending on the country, the event takes different forms: in Rwanda and South Africa for example, buses equipped with computers travel from school to school. “At the end of the workshop hour, most of the students refuse to leave, they absolutely want to continue,” said Obin Guiakou.
Read source: ecceafrica.com
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