Foundation trains 120 pupils in coding, donates laptops, phones
No fewer than 120 pupils participated in the Olusegun Coding Class camp organised by Oluwasegun Idowu Foundation in collaboration with Foster Prime schools in Lagos.
Participants in the event held at Prime Foster Schools, Education District B, Ikoyi, were drawn across the Local Council Development Areas within Lagos Island after a preliminary test conducted on 457 pupils.
The school provided the pupils with electricity, solar power, accommodation, feeding, and sick bay as a way of supporting the programme to give out to the society.”
Winners of the two- week competition organised in two categories, age 6-10 and age 10-16, received laptops and Android phones
In age 6-10 category; Craig Cornerstone won brand-new HP laptop and Olivia Foster won Android phone, while from age 10-16 category; Suleimon Abduljebbar won brand-new HP laptop.
Certificates were also issued to all the participants in the free two-week coding training camp. Addressing newsmen on the programme, founder, Oluwasegun Idowu Foundation, Oluwasegun Idowu, said the event is aimed at giving opportunity mostly to the children of less privileges, who can’t afford going to school, where coding and technology is being taught.
The front line aspirant for Lagos State house of Assembly, Ikoyi/Obalende LCDA, urged government to have coding facilities in every local council in Lagos State, where the children will learn the skills to reduce unemployment.
He stressed that as a politician, who wants to provide solutions to problems, the programme was meant to prepare the children for the future, since the future lies in technology.
According to him, the participants were specifically taught how to develop apps, websites, programmes, animation, and language coding to prepare them for the future.
Idowu stressed that the mainstream of wealth, which has always been natural resources and oil, has shifted to tech- space. He said: “Today, out of the 10 richest people in the world, most of them are from tech-space. So, the future is tech and this will reduce the alarming rate of unemployment in the country.
“We have organisations that need the skill of programmers, web developers, and they are not there to be found, hence the programme came up to start solving the problem before the children get to the age when they will need it.
“We intend to bridge the gap for the government. This is the responsibility of the government not what an individual can handle.” Director of school, Foster Prime Schools, Patrick Foster said, it was the first time pupils were hosted in that format.
“At Foster Prime Schools, we believe that learning should be fun in a way that children can easily remember what they are taught against conventional learning.
“When Olusegun Idowu came to me for collaboration for coding class at Foster Prime Schools being a politician, he considered first that children are of paramount importance because the future is tech.
“The future is about the children. This is the way politics at all levels should be played, by building the future with technological skill-savvy,” he said.
Foster urged government to collaborate with school owners to make a positive impact on the younger generation. Earlier, at the opening ceremony, Lagos Commissioner of Education, Mrs. Folashade Adefisayo, represented by Mrs. Ajayi Aderonke, said the code programme is a future programme, and it should be encouraged. She said the programme will help the children in future and equip them with adequate knowledge on today’s language of communication.
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