How public school girls learn coding at JOEF

SLOWLY, the gender ceiling in Information and
Communications Technology is being lifted
across Nigeria. Although there is still a wide
gap, more women and girls are gaining access,
training and employment in the field. However,
change is oozing much more slowly into the
grassroots.
Many girls at the lower rungs of the society
have never touched a computer, let alone
owning one. That was the case for Blessing
Joseph, until she came in contact with the
James Ogunbor Educational Foundation.
Joseph, while speaking to Hitech Start-Ups,
seemed quite computer savvy; she had learned
the basics of coding and could build a game
with supervision.
Public school pupils taking coding lessons
“I was never really interested in the computer,
but this experience has made me realize that I
can do well in computer programming,” she
told this reporter at a computer programming
initiative organized by JOEF in Lagos recently.
At the programme, organised in partnership
with Engineering Information Foundation which
engaged about 60 primary and secondary
school girls for free, founder of the NGO, Ms.
Odegua Ogunbor said: “I was even finding it
difficult to teach some of them during my
session with those in primary school. I would
mention a word like click or mouse and they
would have no idea about what I was talking
about, so we started by teaching them the
basics. When they came in, we did a survey
and found out that most of them were coming
in contact with a computer for the first time.
“Our vision is to support children with
educational opportunities. One way we do that
is through the Engineering and Technology
Innovation Programme for girls. Today’s outing
is an initiative of that programme. It is all
about training girls in the area of technology
and engineering because these are areas where
you find very few girls. If you go to an
engineering or technology class, you’ll find one
girl among twenty boys. So we are trying to
bridge that gap early enough that is why we
are targeting the girl child.”
“We want them to know that they have what it
takes to be one of the engineers and
technologists; That no career is specific for any
gender. We are doing this three day technology
workshop with girls having full practical
sessions, learning how to design programmes,
games, websites, building simple computer
applications for mobile devices.”
An engineer herself, Odegua wants to kill the
idea that tech stuff is just for boys. “We are
engaging them in hands on, practical sessions
and they now realise that it isn’t as difficult as
it looks. Our desire is that once they have this
basic knowledge, they can develop interest
and consider a career in related fields.”
This already finds expression in Hannah, a
senior student at Isheri Grammar School: “I’m
currently in the process of learning how to
build a game. And I am confident that by the
end of the training I should be able to do it on
my own. It turns out that it is not as difficult
as I always thought. That’s what I want other
girls to know. We can do this and it’s not just
for boys. We have the same brains as boys.”