Zimbabwe is set to hold the Africa Code Week (ACW) and the Women Empowerment Program (WEP) this week starting Tuesday.
The programs will be held virtually from October 5 to October 8 and will be coordinated by the Girls in STEM Trust.
ACW aims at offering free opportunities for young Africans to learn coding skills and for teachers to be trained on digital learning curricula.
It promotes partnerships between public, private and civil society sectors across the African continent driving sustainable impact by building teaching capacity and supporting the adoption of coding into national curricula in support of UN Sustainable Development Goals 4, 5 and 17.
In an interview with CITE ahead of the event, Girls in STEM Trust, Founder and Executive Director and co-host of the Women Empowerment Program (WEP) in Zimbabwe Victoria Nxumalo said ACW is now the biggest digital skills initiative in the continent with 43 participating countries across Africa.
Nxumalo said the program exposes African Youth to coding and digital literacy and upskills trainers across the continent.
“Since 2015, ACW has been empowering communities in Africa through digital literacy and is now the biggest digital skills initiative in the continent with 43 participating countries across Africa, In 2020 alone over 1.5 million people participated,” Nxumalo said.
“ACW exposes African Youth to coding and digital literacy and upskills trainers across the continent. It’s grand vision is to encourage African governments to adopt coding curricula through their Ministries of Education into the education system. This year ACW will have its virtual launch at 2 PM Central African Time, registration details are available on the Africa code Week social media pages.”
Nxumalo explained that Zimbabwe will this year be hosting its first ACW/EWP country-level program from October 5 to October 8 virtually.
She said WEP is a continuing professional development program to grow female leadership in education across Africa.
“Zimbabwe will be hosting its first ACW WEP country-level program from October 5 to October 8 virtually with 26 female educators from around the country geared up for the professional development training centred on 21st-century skills for educators. Currently, there are 38 participating countries and 295 alumnae.,” she said.
“They will be joined by speakers from Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, seasoned professional development practitioners and the keynote address at this event will be delivered by the Minister of State for Provincial Affairs Judith Ncube.”
Nxumalo highlighted that in 2020 the program made big strides by adapting to an online platform allowing for both French and English speaking female educators to attend the program.
She said activities for participants to look forward to include Information and Media Literacy, learning innovations and professional development for educators among others.
“Day one will focus on Information and Media and Information with the key focus on Media and Information Literacy on Curriculum for educators from UNESCO. Day two will be on Learning Innovations specific to the Zimbabwean context and with the government’s drive. Day three will be on Professional Development for educators as life and career skills while on day four there will be group presentations to address challenge statements pertaining to UN SDGs 4, 5 17,” she said.
