Following the successful completion of the pilot phase of CodeLagos, the Governor of Lagos State, Akinwunmi Ambode has approved the implementation of the second phase which should kick off by September 2017.
Information from the Special Adviser to the Governor on Education, Mr Obafela Bank-Olemoh showed that the pilot phase of the training enabled the state to equip about 5,464 primary and secondary school students in the State with “critical life skills” which included basic computing, computational thinking, and use of basic computer programming tools like Scratch and Python.
The previous training which lasted for a period of eight weeks got inspiring feedbacks, the ministry said. The statement also indicated that the Ministry would rely on the experience derived to better execute the second phase. It will be rolled out in public libraries around the state and will be open free-of-charge to Lago residents.
The CodeLagos initiative was unveiled in November 2016. Its aim is to teach one million Lagosians to be able to code by 2019 in order to make Lagos the technology frontier for Africa.
Bank-Olemoh informed that CodeLagos would ensure that the State’s economy is powered by people who can drive its continued development for the next 50 years. This could well be the result if the initiative is carried out effectively, as the language of the future is the language of Coding.
“We currently have 12 Libraries and we are setting up Coding Centres in each of the libraries for Lagosians to partake of the programme. We will also have coding centres in our tertiary institutions,” Mr Bank-Olemoh said.
With similar plans and actions in the technology space by some states (Akwa Ibom and the Lagos States), Nigeria might jolly well be on her way to becoming a nation technology inclined populace. At this rate, these states will be able to produce more individual and corporate innovators who can put nation’s name on the global map. We may also be on the way to grooming founders of the future technology giant companies.
Interested residents can visit www.codelagos.org to register. The registration portal would be opened to the public on Monday, 21 August 2017. Get ready to be coded, Lagos!
Get ready to code, Lagos!
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