Telecommunications Ministry planning for bigger “Code Camp”

The Telecommunications Ministry on Monday presented the findings from two of its summer camp programs held last year to help children in the area of coding and programming, during which it was revealed that plans are in place to expand the project to benefit more children in various areas.
The plans were revealed by the Ministerial Advisor for ICT, Lance Hinds at a forum hosted at the Telecommunications Ministry, Camp Street, Georgetown.
According to Hinds, the Ministry plans to “train the trainers” this year, so that they can go back to their communities and help others to become well-educated in the area of Information and Communication Technology (ICT).
“2019 is going to be bigger, 2018 was really (big) during the holidays (so) we’re expanding that…They’re going to be sessions on Saturday afternoons. I’m hoping, based on discussions, we (will) have some during the week as well,” he said.
The ICT specialist noted that the Ministry is currently finalising the locations for these programmes to be held. He, however, disclosed that so far Regions Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara), Four (Demerara-Mahaica), Ten (Upper Demerara-Berbice) and Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) are on the radar.
“(Region) Four of course is a large Region, population-wise so even though they are some preliminary centers that are being identified we (are) going to have to work out how we satisfy other parts of Four,” Lance explained.
Under this year’s Code Camp, the Ministry hopes to enter the hinterland region in areas such as Fair View, Annai and a number of others in Iwokrama so as to “train the trainers” who will go back and help their fellow villagers.
Meanwhile, during the presentation of results from last year’s two summer camp activities, “Code Camp” and female programming, it was found that a mere 24 per cent of women enter digital sector jobs.
It was because of this that the program was tailored. The activity saw the participation of 56 girls between Grades Seven to Nine.
On the other hand, Code Camp saw the inclusion of 120 children, of which about 40 were girls. This activity lasted six weeks and catered for children in Forms Three and Four.
Together the programs served to introduce the children to programming and coding among other activities.
Some even built games and created animations during the course.
This year’s Code Camp will be launched in the coming week and application forms for the participation of same will be available in newspapers.