When she left Kenya to study engineering at the Technical University in Berlin in 2005, Anne Mwangi thought that learning the local language would be the hardest part of going to study in Germany. In her first few days in class, she realized that there was another language she needed to learn – coding.
In computer programming, code is a list of step-by-step instructions that get computers to do what you want them to do. Coding skills refer to the use of various programming languages to write commands, instructing a computer, application, or software program about the actions it must perform and how to perform them.
“When I arrived there, I actually found that all of my German counterparts were very adept at coding because it’s something they learn and something they are very proficient in,” Anne remembers.
It felt like being thrown into the deep end of a swimming pool when you have never been in a vessel larger than a bathtub.
“Everyone was a very good swimmer and I was just splashing around trying to stay above water. It was a very challenging experience for me,” she says.
She needed to learn C++, a popular programming language that the students used to create algorithms to calculate the large sums involved in thermodynamics engineering.
Prior to relocating, the extent of her computer knowledge was the computer packages she took after secondary school studies, where learners were taught the basics of computers and the most common Office software, such as MS Word and PowerPoint.
To catch up, Anne asked around her class and found volunteers for study groups to learn to code, asked questions whenever the opportunity arose and hustled after every opportunity to learn coding from the tutors at the university.
“I eventually did get it, but it was not smooth sailing,” she says.
She eventually graduated with a degree in Thermodynamics Engineering and is now applying her knowledge about the relationship between heat and other forms of energy as the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Selenium Solar Limited, a company focusing on installation of solar systems in schools as well as domestic and commercial installations.
Her experience at the university left her convinced that coding is a fundamental skill for the 21st century, just like numeracy and literacy were critical skills in the 20th century. As she preaches and sells solar, she also preaches coding.
“This is basically the future of technology. I think that if Kenya, as a country, genuinely is serious about competing with our international counterparts, then I believe that coding should be a mandatory subject. And I believe that the government should facilitate for every student in the country to be able to learn coding because this is where we’re heading,” she said.
She no longer needs to code to get her job done but Anne considers it a basic must-have skill, just like reading and writing are useful even if you don’t end up as a linguistics professor or a mathematician.
To ensure Kenya is not left behind in the ongoing technological revolution, the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) has approved a program for teaching coding in schools which is now being rolled out in the country. The Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) also has a digital literacy component.
The current generation of children in Kenya are complete digital natives. It is not uncommon for a two-year-old to unlock their parent’s phone so as to play games. For coding advocates, the logical step is to get the children to channel their raw skills and turn them from mere consumers to producers of the apps.
“I’ve gone to a couple of schools and there’s some kids who are really gifted. They even mess around with your spreadsheets and perhaps even get into Zoom meetings. The skill they have should be encouraged,” says Jack Ngare, Technical Director at Google.
Kodris Africa, an education technologies firm is the provider of the government-approved program for teaching coding to children aged 7 to 16 years. Through a partnership with Safaricom, the telco’s customers can conveniently access the Kodris Mini App through the M-PESA Super App and purchase licenses for the app.
More than 100 schools are currently trying out the Kodris Africa programme. Starehe Boys Centre and Sparki Primary School in Mombasa have been using the classroom licences since the start of the second term, which enable a teacher to teach coding using the programme.
Coding skills can be an entry point to different tech careers and also can come in handy in a variety of careers as the world has gone digital, a trend that has been speeded up by COVID.
“I think it’s important for teachers to mention to learners that there are so many other verticals. For example, you can go to cybersecurity, there is need for artificial intelligence, machine learning engineers, data science, infrastructure, the folks who enable us to connect, wireless, so many areas, so it’s also important to introduce learners to the broad spectrum of various careers that are available from a software and a technology perspective,” says Catherine Muraga, Managing Director, Microsoft.
Kenya has long been referred to as the Silicon Savannah because of the large number of tech-based start-ups based here.
This year, a war for talent broke out amongst the top technology companies based in Kenya as the demand for software developers soared. The war was partly sparked by Microsoft’s decision to set up their Africa Development Centre in Nairobi, which meant that local software engineers were the best suited for the jobs.
“We’ve seen quite a lot of our developers being poached by big multinationals, like Microsoft, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and others, as well as many local companies, banks, fintechs, who are hiring developer talent,” George Njuguna, the Director, Information Technology at Safaricom, told the Safaricom Newsroom earlier this year.
The war for talent has not been limited to Kenya and apart from the entry of the multinationals, the war for software engineering talent has been driven by the accelerated digitization that was necessitated by the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Google’s Africa Developer Ecosystem Report for 2021 says three other factors contributed to the positive developments in the developer community. The factors were: the growth of local startups, increased demand for remote tech talent and increased demand for the use of the internet by local businesses, which in turn hired developers to help them grow their businesses online.
For Kenyan corporates, the solution is to increase the resource pool in the ecosystem by training and certifying a huge number of IT professionals. This is envisioned to be done internally and also in partnership with Kenyan academia and with firms like Kodris Africa.
Most coding bootcamps last 3 – 4 months and teach enough coding skills to qualify graduates for entry-level coding jobs. It typically takes 6 – 12 months to learn how to code on your own.
It is evident that the future belongs to the tech savvy; therefore, coding should be incorporated as a priority in all levels of learning. The world is evolving, and strides should be made towards achieving the necessary skills to fit in.
For Dr David Njegere, the Chief Executive Officer at the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC), it will be important to increase access to the resources needed – the hardware for example – to give all learners an opportunity irrespective of their economic circumstances. Already, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has the Giga programme, which aims to enable rural areas have access to the internet, as well as providing the devices they need.
“The challenge, therefore, is for government and non-government actors to come in and help those schools which are struggling,” he said.
