Special Adviser to the Lagos State Governor on Education, Obafela Bank-Olemoh, has said that over 337 schools across the six educational districts in the state are ready to engage in intellectual battle in a four-day Code Week Competition.
The competition is part of CodeLagos initiative of the government through the state’s Ministry of Education for school aged children. Schools participating include government and private owned ones.
In a statement made available to EduCeleb.com on Thursday, Mr Bank-Olemoh, said that, through the competition, participants would be exposed to the world of computer programming as well as foster the rapid growth and development of coding skills among students.
He also said the four-day competition, which is set to kick off on Monday, 25th June, was designed to further encourage the use of a wider range of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) skills within the school curriculum and raise ICT standards among students in Lagos State schools.
According to him, “CodeLagos is a response to the mandate of His Excellency, Governor Akinwumi Ambode, to prepare Lagos residents for the technology driven future.
“Our intention, through this competition, is to foster problem solving and algorithmic thinking abilities among these students by simulating real-case problem solving scenarios.
“By so doing, we will position our students for the 21st century workforce. We will also identify talented young programmers and help nurture their skills and expertise.”
The special Adviser to the governor said the Lagos Code Week would commence with a preliminary competition among CodeLagos schools in each of the six educational districts in the state.
He also added that each participating school, whether government or private-owned, would be represented by a team of up to three contestants who would be required to respond to a code-related design challenge.
EduCeleb.com reports that over 1,340 Lagos residents are currently being trained in the third session of CodeLagos out-of-school programme holding in 12 centres across the state.
The centers are located in are located in Ikeja, Ipaja, Isolo, Yaba, Ilupeju, Meiran, Onikan, Surulere, Fadeyi, and Igbogbo Ikorodu.
Bank-Olemoh said that the government projects having up to 150,000 Lagos residents trained by the end of the year.
“Before the end of 2018, we would have set up 1500 In-School coding centres and 50 Out-of-School centres across Lagos State and by our projections, over 150,000 Lagos residents would have been trained by December 2018,” he added.
[…] reports that the 337 schools that participated in the competition have regular coding classes from Monday to Thursday weekly. […]