CodeJIKA – Africa’s Coding Eco-system for schools is launching in Botswana on the Friday, 6th July 2018. Hosted at the Peermont Walmont Hotel, the launch is bringing together stakeholders from Government, business, schools and civil society to see how best to reach ambitious goals.
With youth unemployment at an all-time high and an education system struggling to keep up with the pace of technological disruption, Botswana’s youth face a difficult future. But for Portia Mlangeni, Strategic Partnerships Head at Code for Change, coding is the skill to possess if Botswana youth are to future-proof their careers and help build a new economy that can accelerate local enterprises and that can compete with imports from China, Europe or the US.
Code for Change is building an ecosystem of coding skills and digital entrepreneurs in secondary schools. It is launching CodeJIKA, a program introducing and teaching the basics of computer programming to high school students in a fun and engaging way. “It is our mandate to support the movement to bring coding to secondary schools through advocacy and implementation, but mainly energetic partners. CodeJIKA is partnering with the best and most enthusiastic partners, volunteers and companies including the Ministry of Education and Skills Development and other ICT-related agencies to facilitate the launching of coding clubs in 50 secondary schools across the country, with the aim of reaching 100.”
CodeJIKA brings coding into Secondary Schools through student-run coding clubs. Coding Clubs are run by students and the only requirement is that the school has a PC lab or students have regular and free access to one nearby.
FIRST PHASE GOAL: To partner with effective organizations and with 14 secondary schools for the First Botswana Coding Club competition which will be hosted on 25 July in Gaborone. Thereafter a broader reach of 50 schools joining the league.
Schools will have to register their club on the www.codejika.com website at least 3 weeks prior in order to compete in the event.
