Coding for Africa
Computers have changed the way the world works, and there is a need for youths to have the basic skills to compete in this new global economy. Every single youth deserves the opportunity to succeed in the 21st century.
As of December 2016, Dixre embarked on a project to empower youths at the senior secondary level with the following aims and objectives:
- To teach them basic programing skills.
- To contribute to the growth and sustainability of Information Technology in Africa.
- To help African youths become self-sufficient by developing a skill in programing.
- To create awareness about the opportunities in Information Technology and its value in the 21st century.
Programing knowledge is a basic requirement in the digital age and people learn better and faster when they are young. Considering this fact, our team at Dixre are determined to reach out to youths at the senior secondary level for the purpose of equipping them with the basic knowledge required of them to kick-start a career in the Information and Communications Technology sector.
The United Kingdom should serve as a role model in terms of empowering youths after they successfully introduced computer programing into the curriculum of student in both primary and secondary level. The aim is to prepare this group of students for the 21st century workforce.
The first of these seminars was held on the 9th of December with Saint Michael’s Anglican College at Ibrahim Taiwo road Kaduna. At the seminar, we were able to give the students their first taste of programming by guiding them to program a very simple application using the Python programming language. It is safe to say that the students and teachers alike were awed by the seminar and are enthusiastic about taking the program further.
As the new year rolled in, we kept on working on the “Coding for Africa” seminar and we got to fix more seminar dates with more schools. Building on our experiences from the past seminar, we decided to change the platform for the seminar. We finally settled on the Scratch programming platform. The Scratch programming platform was designed for beginners in programming, to familiarize themselves with key programming concepts such as loops, decisions, etc. It is also ideal because it uses a drag-and-drop graphical user interface to carry out its task. During the workshop segment of the seminar, we were able to guide the students to design and build a simple game using the platform.
On a final note, we are looking forward to the next seminar, where we will open up even more youths’ imaginations to the possibilities of Information and Communications Technology. As a Software and Hardware company, we believe in contributing towards making Africa a better place for the next generation.
Dixre, building a reputation for Information Technology in Africa…