By 
By Oluwatobi Opusunju
The Lagos State Ministry of Education through the CodeLagos Initiative is targeting no fewer than 337 schools for a four-day Lagos Code Week Competition. The competition kicks off  today, Monday, June 25.
According to the Special Adviser to Gov. Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos on Education, Mr. Obafela Bank-Olemoh, the participating schools in the competition will be selected across public and private schools from the six educational districts in the state.
Bank-Olemoh said the competition which is in line with the state government’s commitment to prepare residents of Lagos for a technology-driven future will help foster the development of coding skills and raise the standard of ICT knowledge among students as well as help to deepen Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) within the context of school curriculum.
“CodeLagos is a response to the mandate by Gov. AkinwumiAmbode to prepare residents of Lagos for a technology-driven future.Our intention through this competition is to foster problem solving and algorithmic thinking abilities among our students by simulating real-case problem solving scenarios.
“By so doing, we will be positioning our students for the 21st Century workforce.We will also be identifying talented young programmers and helping to nurture their skills and expertise,” he said.
Bank-Olemoh said the Lagos Code Week would commence with a preliminary competition among the selected schools which would be represented by three contestants each.
He stated further that within the framework of the state government’s aim to make Lagos a knowledge-driven ecosystem, the Lagos State Government is planning to set up 1,500 In-school and 50 Out-of-school coding centres across the state before year end.
“Besides, over 1,340 residents of Lagos are currently being trained in the third session of CodeLagos out-of-School programme holding in 12 centres across the state.Some of them are: Ikeja, Ipaja, Isolo, Yaba, Ilupeju, Meiran, Onikan, Surulere, Fadeyi, and IgbogboIkorodu.
“Before the end of 2018, we would have set up 1,500 In-school coding centres and 50 Out-of-school centres across the state.And by our projections, over 150,000 residents of Lagos would have been trained by December 2018,” Bank-Olemoh said.
