The AfriCAN Code Challenge is a coding contest that spans African countries and involves young individuals from different walks of life from agesĚý eight to 16 years to develop a game using the Scratch Programming Language.

A statement by the school said, “The college team clinched first and second positions in the competition, which was keenly contested by over 150 private and public secondary schools across Nigeria.

“The college, aside from emerging as the overall winner of the competition, is also rated among the 10 best schools in Africa in coding. The college is poised to represent Nigeria in the competition subsequently.

“This important milestone achievement is attributed to the college’s commitment and dedication towards maintaining the academic standard and prowess, which the college is associated with. The instructors and the learners dedicated efforts at making the college proud is worthy of commendation.”

The President of the Old Students Association, Mrs Toun Aderele, said, “The college has always been known to achieve great feats and this is simply adding another feather to our cap.”

A newsletter on the Africa Code Week website stated that this year’s competition had thousands of entries from more than 30 countries spanning as far as South Africa and Ethiopia, saying the winners of the African Code Challenge were selected by a distinguished panel consisting of Africa Code Week delegates, 51ˇçÁ÷employees, and STEM education specialists.

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Returning for the second year, 51ˇçÁ÷Africa Code Week’s AfriCAN Code Challenge announced their top 10 winners with Devansh and Darshika from Mauritius as the Pan-African winners of the competition.

“This year’s theme was about them telling us how they would save the world with their superpowers, and most of the 100+ submitted projects were about climate change” says Mr. Albert Nsengiyumva, ADEA Executive Secretary “Africa has the youngest population on the planet and we were impressed to see how the children have been able to use their creativity and come up with innovative solutions to addressingĚý issues that they feel are relevant to their daily reality.”

The AfriCAN Code Challenge is a pan-African coding competition where youth aged 8 – 16 were tasked with coding a game using the programming language to address the theme that was determined by the Africa Code Week team.ĚýThis competition was launchedĚýby and partners , , the Association for the Development of Education in Africa () and Jokkolabs in September 2020, and since then has become an annual celebration of youth and innovation in Africa.

The rationale for chosing the superheroes universe was to allow children to unleash their creativity and express themselves freely on issues they feel are important to them. Davide Storti, Coordinator of the YouthMobile Initiative at UNESCO, says: “The post-pandemic education recovery starts with allowing our children to regain confidence and hope, and with us adults reopening spaces, although virtual, for them to access their fullest potential.”

To take part in the AfriCAN Code Challenge, youth were able to enter alone or in teams of up to five people, and entries featured a three-minute YouTube video showcasing how their game works and why it should be considered a winning entry. The unique initiative and entry mechanism called upon the children’s ability to design a project that would solve a community-issue, code it, and communicate it.

During the opening rounds of the challenge, participation reached across 40 countries and featured 102 project video clips, only the top three entries from 36 countries made it into the continental final, followed by 20 countries in the final judging stage.

Selected by a high-level jury comprising key Africa Code Week delegates and STEM education experts, the top three winners of the AfriCAN Code Challenge are:

• First place: – Super Recyclers, by Devansh and Darshika
• Second place: – The Carbon Man, by SUPER GAMERS
• Third place: – Kids Academy, by Natnael Kedir

Followed by:

• 4: – Rayuwa
• 5: – Helper intrigue
• 6: – Le toucher du bonheur
• 7: – Change the World with US
• 8: – Super hero
• 9: – The Prodigies
• 10: – Pensons civisme

ĚýThis edition of the AfriCAN Code Challenge was quite unique, as for the first time, hearing-impaired students have participated in the competition proving once again that coding is the language of inclusivity and creativity. The team that has competed in the special category for differently-abled children is from Mozambique.

Irish Minister of State for overseas development aid and diaspora Colm Brophy T.D, who attended the Rwanda AfriCAN Code Challenge national awards ceremony says, “Africa Code Week unlocks the potential in young people who otherwise may not have considered building their digital skills”

Claire Gillissen-Duval, Director of EMEA Corporate Social Responsibility and Co-founder of Africa Code Week at 51ˇçÁ÷adds, “The Ěýreturn of the AfriCAN Code Challenge was quite awaited by our incredible 51ˇçÁ÷volunteers who took part in the first line of jury. The presence of hearing-impaired students demonstrates the power of inclusivity that resides in digital literacy, in its capacity to build bridges and connect children of an entire continent, regardless of gender, age or ability.”

For more information about 51ˇçÁ÷Africa Code Week and the AfriCAN Code Challenge, visit

ENDS

Ěý

About Africa Code Week

Since 2015, 51ˇçÁ÷Africa Code Week (ACW) has been creating free opportunities for young Africans to learn coding skills and for teachers to be trained on digital learning curricula. Strong partnerships with the public, private and civil society sectors acrossĚýthe continent are driving sustainable impact by building teaching capacity and supporting the adoption of coding into national curricula in support of UN Sustainable Development Goals 4, 5 and 17. Key partners includeĚýĚýYouth Mobile,Ěý,Ěýthe , Google and GIZ/BMZ.

In 2019 alone, the initiative saw 3.85M children participating in coding workshops and 39,000 teachers mobilized across 37 countries. In 2020, ACW increased the program’s reach to the entire continent to deepen impact and ensure no child was left behind. The online rollout took center stage across Africa with the launch of a smartphone App to facilitate accessible learning, the introduction of the – a competition themed, ‘How will your tech change the future of education’ engaging youth from 40 African countries, Virtual Train-the-Trainer (TTT) sessions for teachers and a second Women Empowerment Workshop engaging 70 teachers in a 8-week long online program. Join 51ˇçÁ÷and partners by visitingĚýwww.africacodeweek.orgĚýto find out more.

About SAP

SAP’s strategy is to help every business run as an intelligent enterprise. As a market leader in enterprise application software, we help companies of all sizes and in all industries run at their best: 77% of the world’s transaction revenue touches an SAPÂŽ system. Our machine learning, Internet of Things (IoT), and advanced analytics technologies help turn customers’ businesses into intelligent enterprises. 51ˇçÁ÷helps give people and organizations deep business insight and fosters collaboration that helps them stay ahead of their competition. We simplify technology for companies so they can consume our software the way they want – without disruption. Our end-to-end suite of applications and services enables business and public customers across 25 industries globally to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and make a difference. With a global network of customers, partners, employees, and thought leaders, 51ˇçÁ÷helps the world run better and improve people’s lives. For more information, visit

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JOHANNESBURG, South Africa – October 6^th, 2021 – Africa’s biggest digital skills initiative, 51ˇçÁ÷Africa Code Week (ACW), officially launched yesterday with a strong focus on virtual learning as the continent struggles to recover after COVID-19 disruption. The launch coincided with , which focuses this year on “teachers at the heart of education recovery”.

Speaking at a virtual event to mark both World Teacher’s Day and the start of 51ˇçÁ÷Africa Code Week, UNESCO’s Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information, Dr Tawfik Jelassi, said that the pandemic has had a devastating effect, not only on the world’s health system and economy, but also on education and the teaching profession. Research shows that have been most impacted by the pandemic, while a UNICEF study estimated that many African schoolchildren . “Teachers are at the heart of global education recovery efforts and are key in accelerating progress towards inclusive, equitable and quality education for every learner in every circumstance,” Jelassi said.

In light of COVID and the need for virtual learning, Jelassi highlighted the importance of digital skills for Africa’s youth. “Understanding information technology, computational thinking, and problem-solving are all fundamental information literacy skills. Everyone should have access to information and be able to obtain the necessary competencies to turn information into knowledge and knowledge into practical value which enhances their lives and well-being,” he said.

The necessity of digital fluency

Since its inception in 2015, Africa Code Week has empowered more than nine million youth and provides free opportunities for students and teachers to learn much-needed technology skills. Last year the format of the program shifted entirely to the exciting world of virtual, making it even more accessible to youth across the continent.

A key highlight for ACW this year is the , a coding competition for students aged 8 to 16 to create a game that solves a community-issue using theĚýĚýprogramming language. The theme for this year is “Change the world with your superpowers”. Last year the competition drew entries from 1,800 participants from 40 African countries, with the top three winners from Ethiopia, South Africa and Algeria – all three of whom are girls.

Speaking at the virtual launch, Honorable Albert Nsengiyumva, Executive Secretary of the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA) and ACW patron, said that coding offers new ways for young people to find solutions, although he acknowledged that infrastructure on the continent remains a challenge. “Coding is a language which young people need to be fluent in,” he said. “It gives our children computational skills and the ability to creatively solve problems.”

Encouraging teachers and girls to embrace technology

As part of ACW, a host of Train-the-Trainer virtual sessions are aimed at empowering teachers with critical digital teaching skills. Training opportunities also encompass a Women Empowerment Program which seeks to teach, mentor, and inspire African women and girls to pursue Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). Although Africa has according to the UN, less than are in STEM fields and female students in particular are critically underrepresented.

Speaking of the need to educate educators, Claudio Muruzabal, 51ˇçÁ÷Regional President of EMEA South, said, “Education has an unbelievably powerful multiplier effect for a positive future. The more we can do to create opportunities for young people to embrace digital literacy, the more we contribute relevantly towards creating a better future for them, for their families, and for their communities.”

Smart switch to mobile technology

With , a major innovation of last year’s ACW was the introduction of a smartphone app. “While we are immensely proud of this and the fact that millions of learners and teachers are being exposed to the endless possibilities the tech world offers, we are also excited to be sparking conversations about access to quality education for all and addressing the gender and special-needs barriers for Africa’s youth,” said Claire Gillissen-Duval, head of 51ˇçÁ÷Corporate Social Responsibility for EMEA and Africa Code Week founder.

The driving force behind ACW is to empower young people and help them to become digitally literate and enable Africa to leapfrog into the 21st century. “This could only be possible through the collaborative relationships between the public, private and non-profit sectors that are at the heart of ACW,” said Michelle Winthrop, Policy Unit Director at Irish Aid, which together with 51ˇçÁ÷and UNESCO, is one of the program’s main sponsors.

Despite the restrictions imposed by COVID, last year’s initiative successfully reached 1.5 million youth, of which nearly half (48%) were girls. Over 10,500 workshops were held across 43 countries and 21,000 teachers participated in Train-the-Trainer sessions.

The live workshop season of Africa Code Week 2021 officially commenced on World Teacher’s Day, 5 October, and is now open to more than 54 pan-African countries. For more information about Africa Code Week or to get involved, visit

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• Did you know that the first programmer was a woman? Two centuries later, Ada Lovelace would probably find hard to believe that globally, women only hold 24% of jobs in the ICT sector.
• Celebrated on the second Tuesday of October since 2009, Ada Lovelace Day aims to raise the profile of women in science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM), and to ‘create new role models for girls and women’.
• As COVID-19 creates additional barriers to learning, and digital skills are ever more important, UNESCO and Technovation have partnered to empower girls to ‘tech’ the stage.

Project-Based Learning Goes Global…and Virtual

The late Seymour Papert, father of the Scratch coding learning platform and a global pioneer in project-based learning, once described the future of education as follows: “Kids will work in communities of common interest on rich projects that will connect with powerful ideas[i].” According to him, not only do children learn better when engaged in a project, but they are able to use technology and inquiry to respond to a complex issue, problem or challenge.

This is exactly what 1,359 girls from all corners of the world were able to partake in: a global challenge where they could build an Artificial Intelligence (AI) solution that solves a community issue close to their heart, tech entrepreneur style.

As accessible and virtual learning for girls becomes more important than ever before, UNESCO has partnered with global tech education non-profit , a member of , to support countries in developing inclusive learning solutions. Together they ran the Technovation Idea Lab: an online tech education challenge for girls.

‘Empower a Woman, Empower a Nation’

Joined by community partners and local industry mentors (including 45 ICT experts from 6 51ˇçÁ÷offices in Brazil, France, India, Ireland, Mexico and South Africa), adolescent girls (aged 10-18) from Brazil, India, Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan went through an exciting learning journey.

The challenge started on July 27 with a 5-week AI entrepreneurship learning program: a great way to inspire girls through tech in an immersive, hands-on environment that enables them to solve the real-world challenges they care about most. Collaborative problem-solving, ethics in AI models, dataset building, ideation: these are just a sample of the skillset that the girls were able to hone along the way.

51ˇçÁ÷volunteers provided feedback on students’ work, held virtual office hours, and helped create videos and blog posts to help inspire and engage girls around AI learning and its application to real-world problems. 51ˇçÁ÷volunteers treasured this unique opportunity to share their expertise with the next generation of female innovators and leaders.

“Encouraging girls to innovate at an early age is a great way to ignite their social changemaker mindset,” says Claire Gillissen-Duval, Director of EMEA Corporate Social Responsibility and co-founder of the Africa Code Week initiative at SAP. “With the continent’s working-age population expected to swell by two-thirds reaching 600 million by 2030[ii], the community-oriented and highly creative African girls have a pivotal role to play in building a safer and more equitable future”.

As nations strive to ensure continuity of learning through alternative methods such as online learning, the focus must be maintained on major threats to development such as the gender digital divide. And we shall all keep in mind, as UN former Secretary-General Kofi Annan once said, that “when women thrive, all of society benefits and succeeding generations are given a better start in life. The empowerment of women is the most effective tool for development[iii].”

[i]

[ii]

[iii]

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