Create Jira Ticket
This idea cannot be sent to Jira.
Code School
Computer science is absent among our children more so in school. Code school project seeks to inspire children in the country in computer science through computer programming workshops using scratch and other creative tools.
Define three specific objectives that you would like to achieve with your proposal.
- To excite and motivate 30,000 children in computer science every year.
- To introduce the idea of becoming digital media creators to children other than remaining consumers.
- To establish a code club in every school in Uganda.
What problems (particularly in value chain competitiveness and global disruption) are your community’s stakeholders facing due to the Covid-19 pandemic?
- Insufficient digital media creators as demand rises due to covid-19 effects.
- The rise in the levels of unemployment across the globe as employees are coping with technology now.
- The threat technology is posing on the labor force calls for adaptability to computer science knowledge and skills among our children and youth.
What minimum viable solution(s) are you proposing to address the challenge(s) in your community?
Code school program: This is computer science inspirational program designed to excite and motivate children from ages of 7 to 17 years old. Using children computer programming software tools like scratch, the code school has leveraged on such power to draw masses to consider a path in computer science.
Code school runs on theme “making every child fluent in code”
IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY
- 1. Collaborations & Partnerships
In order to reach out to schools easily with less or resistance we have from time to time established collaboration with Municipal education offices and other Education offices at district levels to help us easily advocate for the program across schools. Fully established collaborations are with Entebbe Municipality and Nansana Municipality and National Information Technology Authority Uganda (NITA-U).
- 2. Pitching sessions to School.
The pitching process is an introduction of the code school program to the school. This is achieved through code school trainer in support of Regional education authorities who approaches the school with a pitch letter and discuss with the school management.
- 3. Scheduling of Training Dates and Laboratory preparations
Upon acceptance for the training in the school, the school laboratory is inspected to check for readiness and dates are set to have the sessions. The code school program is designed to be an engagement with children minimally 1 hour and utmost 2 hours.
- 4. Code school Workshop
Finally, the real meal is now being served, ready to make every child fluent in code. With our resources (software applications, training content and inspirational videos) in place the training kicks off in school’s computer laboratory, inspiring children in computer science with hands-on engage in technological presentation, animation development and or game development using scratch and/or other programming tools.
- 5. Evaluation
Code school is incomplete without evaluation, we believe in honest feedback form the audience to enable us track impact. This is sourced from all stakeholders involved (children, school administration, teachers and Regional authorities.) The evaluation format could be written or verbal or non-verbal depending on the category dealt with.
- Sustainability.
Yes, the ultimate question is here. The code school is an entirely free program accessible to every person within our reach. The program doesn’t discriminate either in gender, race, ethnicity or nation and any other forms of discrimination.
The code school program is entirely sustained and funded by Code Academy Uganda currently from other coding activities like Code camps during holidays. Code camps are holiday intensive computer programming classes for children ages 7 to 17 years of age. This is a premium program for 2 to 3 weeks every holiday which is held in various regions in country. We have sofar managed to run in two regions; Kampala and Entebbe.
However, the code school program seeks further funding to enable us to reach more children in the country. We are open to donations and grants from any willing entity.
- 7. Advocacy
Computer science integration in the school curriculum is one of the gifts our country can offer to its children. Through our advocacy forum, we are intending to reach our to the concerned stakeholders and discuss the possibilities of computer science curriculum integration in primary schools curriculum.
Share your story (your narrative)
It all started 5 years ago with Africa Code Week project in Uganda as volunteer trainers we gladly lent a hand to reach out to children among schools with computer programming skills using scratch. After 3 years of participation, I desired to see impact among the children we had trained for last 3 years on a one week occasion per year and i found none.
When i assessed the project's objectives and desires; all was targeting numbers and we of course always got the numbers. With such a deficiency, i started asking myself how can we correct this, thus the inception of this idea.
if the white man came in Uganda and he could offer resources for 1-2 weeks of the program then we could offer the entire year to our children, if all he could offer was funding for 2 weeks, we could then lay our very own lives for this cause. I released i had a more sense of responsibility to this generation than the white man would release.
Walking in the scorching sun of Kampala, we reached out to schools and we started training. On empty stomach, and no transport we made it. Our strength was always revived when we notice a smile on the face of the child we trained.
We believed in this from day one and one thing we desired was that we see the children of this nation partake of what we did not have in our days as children. If children from countries like USA, Canada, Australia, Singapore are learning computer science why not children in Uganda.
With our code school program reinforced with code clubs and code camps; we have seen both success and failures at different fores but we still believe in a technological based economy for this nation.
Please provide any additional relevant information that you would like to share.
Code school program is one of the programs within Code Academy Uganda; an organization the seeks to empower innovative and creative minds in Uganda through computer science.
The Academy runs on the mission “To inspire, train and mentor the young generation in computer science knowledge and skills which stand vital for their sustenance in the 21st Century workforce.”
You could check out the Academy Facebook page also https://www.facebook.com/Codeacademyug
Your Final Proposal for challenge
yes
Good initiative. What is your business model? Any scaling plans to other East African countries?
You have a great idea, am also doing a similar thing to Tanzania but I am targeting girls, visit my page to see if we can collaborate.
Hello Ssempala Edward,
Great initiative great job and target.
Quick question how is your business model achieving your sustainability goal.Also have you considered reaching out to the interior areas in Uganda to assist the brilliant brains that have no access to the digital materials?This might be a good cause for them and help.
Good Luck and Keep at it.
Best Regards.
Dear Ssempala,
This is a real great initiative and I greatly appreciate your enthusiasm and passion.
I appreciate your enthusiasm. You need to state clearly your target group - saying 8 years and above sounds vague. How will you fund your project in terms of acquiring tools and onboarding facilitators?
Users tagged:
Good initiative. Do you have a plan of making it part of school curriculum.
Hello Ssempala, great idea. The game changer would be to work with governments to include this as part of the school curriculum. This would enable you scale the idea to unprecedented levels. All the best!
Woow!! A code school, I would really like it and I'm rooting for you to scale even in Tanzania, I believe my children will come there. Keep going and make sure you put this idea into action
Users tagged:
nice! Is content delivered in EN or Lugandan? Are you relying on available hardware, as I know that can be a challenge?
How do you intend to attract this students/customer. or make their guardian accept your services and pay for them.
Hi Ssempala, great to have great people like you here doing amazing things to help develop a digital Africa. I might say I am very impressed by the works you are doing. This is really a great initiative. In Africa we need to have more children having digital skills to help develop a more digital literacy culture. In regards to your projects some areas you need to consider are collaborations. Be an advocate and talk to government officials to include ICT in the school curriculum as a mandatory. To make this exciting you can also be having coding competitions among schools to help solve challenges that we face in society. All the best
Hello Edward,
Nice to see your passion to computer science. Your project is merely a social enterprise or do you plan to make it profitable? How do you plan to make it sustainable?
I think this has alot of potential as the idea hasn't really been tested before. Well done!
Hello, nice initiative but how do plan to reach 300,000 per annum? That's almost 30,000 monthly. Do you have the infrastructure to support these numbers, the staff and logistics, wont that be a lot of overheads to your business. I will advise you lower the numbers or come more clearer on how you intend to realistically achieve 300,000 in 12 months.
Hello
My advice Start small and build momentum, Being a social entrepreneur can be very difficult, you are constantly in a field dominated by changing dynamics, you will often face business challenges, and you have to start small and build your enterprise from the ground up. You must be resilient, realistic, and passionate about your goals and the impact you are trying to achieve.
To add to your solution, I am sharing with you questions from one of our trainings that can help in refining our ideas and projects
What business model will you follow to implement this idea?
What methodology or strategy will you use during different processes of implementing this idea?
Which are the processes you have to go through until the finalization of the idea?
What means or tools do you need to implement my idea?
Which are your potential collaborators, investors?
Thank you
Hello, nice project! It would be great, when possible, to attract and connect with potential employers. This way all your graduated students will have job at the end and will educate themselves for targeted need of the employer. What is the current funding source of the school? Many thanks, Ivana
Great initiative! it would be great to partner with some companies to provide internships when school is over.
Hello Edward,
Looks like a great idea, I'm just curious in how you will make this project sustainable to ensure childreen get free classes, cause I know there are a lot of operative cost.
Keep the good work, is good for everyone around the globe to get the chance to write code.
Hi Edward, well-done.
If I got you right, your project focuses on impact but not numbers. I am of the opinion that you do public-private partnership whereby the schools provide computers while your team trains at agreed rates such that a child who has joined your training module while in Basic 1 class is followed through Basic 5- that is cool 5 years continuous training based on modules. I am sure this has the tendency to boost your business.
What is your impact story? Do you this its good for kids to start coding at their early age? is not it hear for them and creating mental pressure for them.
Interesting project. Have you been able to reach out to partners on this? If so who are they or who will they be and how will they help? Thanks.
Hi Edward this is an amazing initiative, I would however wish to know how you intend to extend such support to cover the rural based schools where power and the lack of equipment still affects the ICT integration
Hello Edward, This is good since one of the problems facing students under BSCS course is problem solving skill. Good Job
Thanks
PS: Please like or give advice to my project https://cocreate.itu.int/post/3484280
Great idea. The 21st generation children needs computer skills to fully match with the changing world. Given that most young children in schools especially those in rural areas have no access to computers, How are you planning to help them also benefit from this initiative?
Great idea. The 21st generation children needs computer skills to fully match with the changing world. Given that most young children in schools especially those in rural areas have no access to computers, How are you planning to help them also benefit from this initiative?
Hi sempala
I love this and would like to appreciate the work your are doing together with your team
Thanks so much
Status label added: Community feedback received
The idea has been progressed to the next milestone.
Status labels added: Submission completed, Idea under jury review
The idea has been progressed to the next milestone.