Microsoft Africa, Credit Bank, and Kodris Africa recently announced their partnership to support coding in Kenyan schools. This is in light of the Ministry of Education via the KICD rolling out a newly approved curriculum for primary and secondary schools that will see to it that students learn to code, the first partnership of this nature in Africa.
The partnership will ensure that the three firms work together to endorse the use of Kodris Africa Studio by learners in Kenya. After a successful startup, the partnership will roll out to the rest of Africa. Kodris Africa Studio is an online platform where content is uploaded. Kodris Africa offers an Interactive Coding Curriculum for different grades.
Computer coding simply means transforming ideas, solutions, and instructions into the language that a computer can understand, that is, binary machine code. Coding being introduced at schools in this partnership is in line with the government’s efforts to promote the use of technology. The Kodris Africa syllabus covers primary school and lower secondary school.
“The Ministry of Education has made a great step in the right direction by approving a product that will enhance digital literacy among students in Kenya. We enjoin ourselves in this journey to bring this piece of education to Kenyan schools. Students who learn and understand coding have an advantage of becoming full participants – rather than merely spectating – in the heavily computerized and digitalized world,”
Irene Githinji, The Program Manager said.
Kodris Africa’s CEO reiterates that individuals will have a free trial (15 tasks)after which they will begin to pay an access fee of KSHs. 330
“Learners deserve all the knowledge that they can acquire in their year of study so that they can stand shoulder to shoulder with their peers from around the world,”
He added.
“We have built an online studio so that the leaners and teachers can access the content online.”
“This partnership marks and important milestone towards making coding a reality for learners across Kenya and indeed the rest of Africa,”
Mr. Munene said.
Kodris last month stated that to roll out the curriculum they will seek synergy with other partners. This partnership with Microsoft Africa comes after Microsoft recently launched a $27 million (KSHS. 3 Billion) research center in Nairobi called the Microsoft Africa Development Center. The Center will house the engineering, design, research, and innovation teams, as well as the Microsoft Garage – an incubation hub launched as part of the ongoing efforts to scale tech innovation in the continent.