AFRICA ( Commonwealth Union) _ Teaching young children digital skills has become more crucial as Kenya rapidly emerges as one of Africa’s burgeoning tech leaders. Due to the fact that many occupations in the future will be performed using technology, educational experts believe it is crucial for students to begin learning these abilities at an early age.
According to Anne Njine, an education specialist with Opportunity International EduFinance, 75% of occupations in the next 15 years will demand computer skills. Children who have been exposed to these things can feel optimistic about the future since they are progressing in the same way as the working world, she claimed.
They will be equipped and ready to go into the world of work with the right key skills that are needed for employability by the time they begin working. Code With Kids, a technology-based program that works with kids in the slums of the Nairobi suburb of Kibera, is one organization that is assisting with this mission. It teaches them how to code and the notion of robots.
A free kick for their future.
The organization’s founder, Renice Owino, claims that it is committed to giving children and young adults from low-income communities a cheap and accessible STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education.
Modern technology is used in the Kibera plant, including robotic kits and laptops. The project is financed in part by parents and in part by nonprofit organizations. The majority of children’s programs in Nairobi cost about Ksh 5,000, or about $50. Parents in Kibera are way out of pocket because of this. At a reasonable cost of Ksh 50 per session, we offer the same program to the kids, she said.
Children are able to learn, and parents are able to pay for this without feeling stressed. These young students are receiving a free start in the future from us. Owino takes special pride in the show’s capacity to appeal to young girls. More girls are now attending the classes, which is encouraging. It was difficult to convince people to come when we first started this, she remarked.
A youngster who enrols in the program is first instructed in the fundamentals of computer operation before moving on to topics like web creation, mobile application design, gaming, and physical computing. They have gained new abilities as a result of the program.
Numerous young people have finished creative projects, and some have even developed their own websites and software. With just 10 participants when it first started in 2015, Code With Kids has now worked with almost 2,000 kids through after-school programs and coding bootcamps. Owino expects that this will better prepare them for and help them adapt to the competitive employment market in Africa.
