200 pupils in Shai-Osudoku benefit from ‘Coding Caravan’ project

200 Basic School Pupils from the Shai-Osudoku District of the Greater Accra Region have benefited from the ”Coding Caravan” project.

In its third year, the project is expected to inspire the younger generation to leverage on ICT to solve pressing issues across Ghana.

This year, pupils from ten basic schools and 50 teachers in Dodowa were trained in coding and some basics of ICT. Dorothy Klutse, Digital Training Supervisor, Institute of ICT Professionals Ghana, noted that in the next five years, the ‘’Coding Caravan” project would be extended to communities across the country.

She said the nationwide approach would enable children in hard-to-reach communities to benefit from the digital skills training.

The free coding caravan project was birthed in 2022 to enable students have equal access to digital literacy and skills transfer.

With over 100 laptops, the instructors took the beneficiaries through the block-based coding languages like Scratch, an online community platform where you can create your own interactive stories, games, and animations, 3D design, printing and Internet of Things (IOT).

The Director of Education at Shai-Osudoku District of the Greater Accra Region, Harriet Lomotey, underscored the need for the practical aspect of ICT, which provides an inclusive environment for beneficiaries of “Coding Caravan”.

“What we intend doing as a Directorate is to transfer the knowledge these pupils would acquire to other children in their respective schools. We would also promote digital skills in the Shai Osudoku district to impact more lives in that regard,” Harriet Lomotey indicated.According to the CEO of the Chamber of Telecommunications, Dr Ken Ashigbey, “Coding Caravan” is helping children in deprived communities to effectively engage with digital technologies while they leverage these platforms to their future benefit.

Dr Ken Ashigbey reiterated that the ICT culture in schools should be improved with the use of practical-based teaching and learning to enable students to understand the fundamentals of ICT, use computer applications and easily adapt to them.

“The learning environment is more dynamic than ever before. With the advancement of Artificial Intelligence, the idea of the classroom should be re-modelled in a number of ways to fit the evolving needs of modern digital learners,” he further added.

The participating schools were the Asutuare Junction D/A Basic School, Ayikuma Methodist Basic School, Doryumu D/A Basic A school, Asebi D/A Basic School, St Peters R/C Basic School, Ayikuma R/C Basic School, Manya Jorpanya D/A Basic School and Doryumu Methodist Basic School.

The Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications in partnership with the Institute of ICT Professionals, Ghana, organized the “Coding Caravan” initiative which has so far trained over 1000 pupils and about 500 teachers across the country.