by Emma Okonji
Determined to improve the country’s education and engage young Nigerians to become globally competitive through the facilitation of capacity building and technology transfer boot camp, SystemSpecs, a software company in Nigeria, recently pulled secondary school students together in a two-week intensive coding sessions in Lagos and Abuja.
Tagged Remita Summer Coding Camp, the two-week summer camp, according to SystemSpecs Corporate Social Responsibility programme coordinator, Akor Akpenyi, was to build the capacity of the students to become globally competitive via coding and other technology programmes, which in many ways will provide solutions to Nigeria’s perennial challenges.
Akpenyi, explained that the coding camp was not a one-off platform, but a five-to ten-year plan that would help to drive national growth and development, especially in education.
“Today, we are engaging the secondary school students. Tomorrow, we may decide to engage the university students in order to build capacity and transfer knowledge through the application of technology in respect to artificial intelligence, machine learning and the Internet of Things, animation, building games, 3D printing along with some other interesting training,” Akpenyi said.
According to her, “the knowledge gained from the training exercise would later transform to become major vocations that the students would lean-on to become value-adding professionals in the next couple of years. Our intention is to develop the ability of these students for the nation.”
One of the parents, who accompanied one of the participating students, Aishat Lawal at the summer camp, Olajide Lawal, told the media that he purposely brought her 12-year old daughter who is in JSS3 at the Federal Government College, Ibillo, Edo State, to the camp to learn how to write a line of code.
Lawal said he had to register her ward when he learnt about the opportunities available to students who are digitally-inclined in this present digital age.
“I see a lot of opportunities that are lacking in my local government and brought Aishat here to build her capacity in addition to what she is being taught in Federal Government College,” Lawal said.
The Executive Director, SystemSpecs, Deremi Atanda, who was at the camp to raise the morale of the students, said SystemSpecs would build the capacity of the students on how to discover the reason why they are in school.
“We are complementing what the government is doing. If one of the fundamental responsibilities of the government is being challenged, we cannot complain. We must look at what we can do to complement the government’s efforts. That’s education on a general level.
“At SystemSpecs, we are more interested in national competitiveness that rides on the back of the knowledge economy and knowledge economy thrives on the back of effective technology skills. That is what is driving our involvement in the summer camp, which is not a short-term plan but a long term plan. This is how SystemSpecs is contributing to national development, particularly in the area of education.
