The Lagos State Government wants to teach 1 million students to code by 2019

CodeLagos is the brainchild of the Lagos State Government (LASG) as part of its bid to make Lagos state a technology frontier, and is also in line with the smart city agenda of the the current administration. The program aims to teach 1 million students how to code by 2019.

On Friday, November 11, 2016, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode will launch CodeLagos at a private corporate event with guests from different sectors of the economy.

By making coding curriculum accessible to every student in Lagos State, the program hopes to position students in Lagos state to leverage on local and global opportunities and meet the growing demand for tech skills.
 Talking about the CodeLagos programme, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Education, Obafela Bank-Olemoh, said at a recent press briefing,“Our goal for ‘CodeLagos’ programme is to teach one million students in Lagos State the basic knowledge involved in computer coding system by 2019. This programme will be available to our students from primary to tertiary education level.”

The programme will integrate different programming languages to its curriculum, considering a range of factors. There will also be accelerated classes for gifted students whose learning pace might be faster than their counterparts.

CodeLagos plans to create about 1,200 jobs by early 2017. The program is hiring facilitators for the initial stage. Applicants do not need to possess any previous coding experience as they will undergo training with the program’s technical partners to prepare for teaching the curriculum.
The LASG and the Lagos State Ministry of Education in collaboration with the Ministry of Science and Technology has partnered with organisations like SystemSpecs, Google, SAP and Praeklt to provide technical support for this project.
 
By April 2017, CodeLagos centres will be launched in 500 primary, secondary and tertiary institutions (private and public) across Lagos State, as well as in all public libraries and ICT spaces. There are also plans to enable interested parties log into the CodeLagos website and learn to code at their own pace