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Tag: CodeLagos

  • Group appeal to Ambode to set up CodeLagos centres in Badagry

    A Non-Governmental Organisation,The Students Without Borders International (SWBI), has appealed to the Lagos State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode to establish CodeLagos Centres in Badagry.
    The Executive Director, SWBI, Mr. Daniel Nwodi made this plea in a statement issued to The Nation in Badagry, Lagos.
    CodeLagos was initiative of The Lagos State Ministry of Education aimed at educating Lagos state residents for future of work-by teaching how to write code and creatively solve problems.
    It runs in public and private schools in the state, from primary to tertiary.
    The vision of the programme was geared toward making Lagos State the technology frontier in Africa by empowering people with skills needed to create and take advantage of the opportunities that a tech-driven economy proffers.
    The coding centres in Lagos had scaled up from 193 in 2017 to 275 in 2018 including 10 public centres.
    Nwodi, who noted that the initiative would help the out-of-school youths in the coastal town to develop themselves technologically, said “I was surprised that there is no single centre for CodeLagos initiative in Badagry town here.
    “I saw some youths engaged with coding in private computer centres. They paid for the service. If the government can establish two centres in Badagry town, the centre will take care of many out-of-school youths who are wandering the streets” he said.
    Nwodi added “I believe that if our youths are well-equipped while they are growing up, they will be more useful to themselves and more to the communities”. At this level, if they are given the advantage of this initiative, they will use the knowledge gained to help themselves and the society,’’.
    The executive director noted that the NGO had organised an entrepreneurship adventure in Songhai Farm, Port Novo, Benin Republic, to expose more youths to entrepreneurial skills.
    He noted that Nigeria is now turning to Agro-business line and Songhai is the centre where sustainability happens.
    “We are taking 10 young men on the adventure. When they get there, they will know why they say tourism is an avenue for business development. When young men go to a place like that, they will be motivated. This is to open up opportunity upon opportunities for our youths,’’ he said.

  • Ambode approves expansion of CodeLagos

    Centres increased to 648

    Lagos State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode has approved the expansion of the CodeLagos initiative to give more access to Lagos residents. 

    This expansion is targeted at increasing the reach and scope of the project by setting up more coding centres across the State.

    Announcing the commencement of the new session of CodeLagos in Primary and Secondary schools, Special Adviser to the Governor on Education, Mr. Obafela Bank-Olemoh in a statement on Tuesday confirmed that the CodeLagos in-School programme for the new session has started in 648 schools across the 6 Educational Districts in the State.

    “So far, over 60,000 Lagos residents from different parts of the State have been trained through the In-school and Out-of School pathways of CodeLagos. For this new academic term, we have increased our In-School centres from 337 to 648, and 226 of these schools are government schools.

    “In a bid to expand the programme, we have also reached out to NGOs and religious organizations to partner with the State Government to establish Coding centres by opening their facilities for the coding classes.   We have received good feedback from many organizations and we will commence training in these centres soon,” he said.

    Read Also: Ambode comes to grief

    Emphasizing that CodeLagos classes are totally free, Bank-Olemoh said that the programme will continue to train students in Scratch, Python, Mobile App development, Oracle’s Alice and Greenfoot, as well as Blockchain Technology, depending on their level.

    “One of the key success factors of this program is the robust training and incentivization for ICT teachers in participating schools, who are trained to deliver coding lessons to their students.”

    “Recently, 563 new CodeLagos facilitators were trained in preparation for this new term and have been deployed to deliver coding classes to students. A total of 1,005 CodeLagos facilitators have been trained and deployed to centres since the inception of the programme in 2017,” he said.

    Besides, the Special Adviser disclosed that plans are in advanced stages to host the first ever CodeLagos Hackathon Finale in November 2018. This month-long competition, which commenced on October 2, is open to all computer programmers in the State and designed to encourage Lagosians to solve everyday problems we encounter using technology.

    Bank-Olemoh added, “We’re inviting contestants to provide solutions to problems in these areas: Health, Transport, Environment, Energy, Education, Fintech/Finance as well as Environment.”

    At the grand finale scheduled to hold on the 1st of November, 2018, 10 teams of programmers will slog it out for the grand prize of N2million.

    He said the progress of the CodeLagos programme can be tracked on www.codelagos.org.

  • Low-cost schools thank Ambode for loans, CodeLagos

    Association for Formidable Educational Development (AFED) has thanked Governor Akinwunmi Ambode for providing access to loans for low-cost private schools through the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (LSETF).

    Speaking at the congress of the association held in Maryland, Lagos, at the weekend, its National, President  Mrs Esther Dada, said: “We want to thank our amiable Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode for looking inward. He has been able to give us loans through the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (LSETF). He is a listening governor. Those who received the loans, their schools are not the same again. That is what a responsive government is meant to do, not to drive us away.’’

    Mrs Dada also praised the  government for sponsoring 40 low-cost private schools under the CodeLagos initiative which builds capacity of school children to learn computer programming.

    She however called for financial assistance to help the association provide materials to its members at an affordable rate.

    “We, as an association, require help in the area of financing the publication and distribution of continuous assessment kits, students’ diaries, register, and many other teaching and learning materials. Our members require a cheap but standardised materials which has to be on time (beginning of term) to deliver quality services to their students.We are soliciting financial support for the association to enable us meet this demand from our members and also contribute to upgrading the standard of their services,” she said.

    Dada noted that the congress was the last of her eight-year tenure, urging members of the association to participate in the process of choosing a befitting leader to continue where she stopped.  However, she promised her support as she would continue to serve on the association’s board of trustees.

    In her keynote address with the theme: “Bridging the gap in education quality: The role of technology in low-fee schools,” the Office of Education Quality Assurance Director-General, Mrs Ronke Soyombo, said technology had become an enabler of quality education, urging schools to tap into it to enhance quality education delivery.

    “Positive implications of digital technologies in schools include turning around the challenges of educational change, communicating ideas, generate, share and distribute knowledge,” she said.

    Mrs Soyombo said AFED Schools had improved over the years.

    “Quite a lot of AFED schools we have visited lately, we are seeing that your report keeps getting better and better,” she said.

    Over 3,000 proprietors of low-cost private schools from Lagos, Rivers, and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) attended the congress to learn how to improve their schools, particularly using technology during a panel discussion that featured as part of the congress.

    Representative of the Developing Effective Private Education Nigeria (DEEPEN), Mr Adeyemi Adebayo, urged AFED members to make use of the service providers that DEEPEN mobilised to help low-cost private schools access products and services that would make their schools better.

    Mrs Olanrewaju Oniyitan, W-Holistics Business Solutions CEO, said her firm had been helping AFED schools create transformation plans and keep to them.

    She added that many schools had also been connected to some opportunities, including voucher system for pupils, and loans through her firm.

    Others speakers, who participated in a panel of discussion for the programme, were Dr Eze Akani of the Rivers State University of Education and Mr Ibukun Daramola, a former director in the Lagos State Ministry of Education.

  • Lagos to expand CODELAGOS initiative

    The CODELAGOS Initiative of the Lagos State Government is to be expanded.

    Governor Akinwunmi Ambode has approved the implementation of the next phase of the programme following the success of the first.

    No fewer than 15,000 individuals were trained in the initiative, which is focused on expanding the reach and scope of Lagos residents through its “In-School” and “Out-of-School” pathways.

    CodeLagos, which has set the goal of teaching one million Lagos residents basic coding skills, was initiated in 2016.

    Giving a progress report on the programme, Special Adviser to the Governor on Education Obafela Bank-Olemoh, in a statement, said the second phase will begin on Monday in the Out-of-School Centres, which cater for Lagos residents who are above 16 years and are not presently in any primary or secondary school.

    “Coding classes will commence on April 9th in four centres – Herbert Macaulay Library, Yaba; Isolo Public Library, Isolo; Ilupeju Public Library, Ilupeju; and Onikan Youth Centre, Onikan. Additional centres including other Lagos State public libraries, community centres and private training centres are scheduled to roll out in a few weeks.”

    Bank-Olemoh spoke on plans to begin coding classes in 400 primary and secondary schools across the six Educational Districts – both government and private – in the coming academic term set to resume this month.

    “We will continue to train students in Scratch, Python and Mobile App development, depending on their level.  This term we will also be introducing Oracle’s Alice and Greenfoot programming languages, through a partnership with Oracle Academy,” the special adviser said.

    He said the progress of the  programme could be tracked on www.codelagos.org and that the classes are totally free.

  • Ambode approves second phase of CodeLagos

    Ambode approves second phase of CodeLagos

    •Governor to launch 300 new code centres Sept.

    Lagos State Governor Akinwunmi Ambode has approved the implementation of the second phase of CodeLagos project, which will be launched in September.

    The approval is coming on the heels of the successful implementation of the pilot phase of the project in which 5,464 pupils of primary and secondary schools across the state were trained.

    A statement yesterday by the Special Adviser to the Governor on Education, Obafela Bank-Olemoh, said 65 schools, comprising government and private, took part in the pilot phase.

    The statement said: “The training has delivered to the pupils critical life skills, including basic computing, computational thinking and use of basic computer programming tools, like Scratch and python, over a period of eight weeks. The feedbacks have been inspiring.

    “Of the 65 schools in the pilot, 23 are government-owned, of which seven are girls’ only, while two others are boys’ only.”

    The statement added that the experience and knowledge garnered from the pilot phase enabled the Ministry of Education to assess and fine-tune the framework and implementation model of the project for future rollout.

    It said: “This pilot phase has helped us to test our assumptions and implementation plans. We have observed what worked and what did not. We would put them into consideration for future rollout beginning with the next batch in September.”

    Also, the government has concluded plans to roll out the project in state-owned public libraries to ensure access to CodeLagos classes for more residents, especially those out of the conventional schools system, to benefit from it.

    Bank-Olemoh said more Lagos residents would take part in the training at any public library.

  • 100 Master Trainers ready for CODELAGOS

    The training of 100 master trainers for the CodeLagos project last week flagged off  Lagos State efforts at equipping 1,000 facilitators with programming skills, which they will pass on to one million young people by 2019.

    Special Adviser to Governor Akinwunmi Ambode on Education, Mr Obafela Bank-Olemoh, said at the commencement of the three-day training session in Lekki that the initiative was in line with the government’s vision to position the state as the technology frontier of Africa.

    Bank-Olemoh said the project would train facilitators who would be deployed to primary and secondary schools as well as tertiary institutions and public libraries to take after school coding classes, begining from this month.

    The trainers were selected following rigorous screening, which began last month. “These Master trainers will go on to train over 1,000 CodeLagos facilitators, who will eventually be deployed to different coding centres across the state. In this way, CodeLagos will create employment and business opportunities for Lagosians in the technology sector,” he said.

    The Special Adviser thanked the Asset & Resource Management (ARM) Holding Company, which is providing 15 coding centres. He also thanked PricewaterhouseCoopers, SystemSpecs, Etisalat, Oando Foundation and Oracle Academy, for their pledged assistance to the project.

    Executive Director, SystemSpecs Limited, Mr ‘Deremi Atanda, said the organisation chose to support the initiative to help the government empower its youth.

    “The greatest asset of a state like Lagos is the growing youth population. The choice to empower them is the wisest decision the state has made, laying a good foundation for the emerging knowledge economy. We are convinced that CodeLagos would do just that,” Atanda said.

    The Commissioner for Science and Technology, Mr. Femi Odubiyi, reiterated the government’s commitment to develop a tech-driven economy.

    CodeLagos will officially launch this month with a roll out of coding centers across 350 public and private schools as well as public libraries across the state.

     

  • Old students urged to embrace CodeLagos

    Old students have been drafted to help the Lagos State Government meet its target to open 300 ICT centres in schools for the CodeLagos project by April.

    Special Adviser to Governor Akinwunmi Ambode on Education, Mr Obafela Bank-Olemoh, met with leaders of alumni associations of public and private schools last Friday at the Four Points by Sheraton Hotel, Oniru in Lagos, to intimate them of plans to groom one million pupils and youths on program by 2019.

    He urged them to adopt CodeLagos as an initiative to improve their alma maters.

    He spoke on preparations for the roll out of the programme, including the recruitment and training of 1,500 facilitators, who would use the specialised curriculum to teach primary and secondary school pupils, undergraduates, as well as youth not within the school system, to code.

    Speaking on how they could come in, Bank-Olemoh suggested that old students’ associations should equip and manage ICT centres in their alma maters for the coding classes which would hold 2:30pm-4pm five times a week.

    He said they could establish new ICT/digital libraries or upgrade facilities on ground in the schools.

    He also said they could pay the facilitators’ allowances.

    Old students in attendance included Mr. Tunji Alapinni, a retired police officer and Vice-President of St Gregory’s College Old Boys Association; and Mr  Adeniyi Aromolarin, President, Government College Lagos Old Boys Association.

    The project is to expand to 500 schools by September.