In December 2021 a survey conducted in Ivory Coast, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda and Kenya by the International Finance Corporation shows that the demand for digital skills training will surge in the coming decade. 

It further predicted that more than 50% of the jobs that will be done by children today, have not been created yet and will require some level of digital skills even for occupations outside ICT specialities. 

This is the premise behind the approval of the new programming syllabus in primary and secondary schools by the Kenyan Government through the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD).

Prof. Charles Ochieng’ Ong’ondo the CEO of KICD said that coding is a practical thinking activity that enables children to imagine, create and solve problems. He added that the classes will be offered by Kodris Africa which is a platform that was established with the purpose of teaching children ages 7 to 16 how to code.

The syllabus is designed for primary and lower secondary school students, it has a user-friendly interface, and can be taught by any licensed school teacher. The platform will include a learner’s handbook. The focus will be in Python programming language which is used in web programming, game programming and AI fields.

Kenya is the first African country to approve this kind of syllabus and Kodris is set to offer the syllabus to another 48 African countries. Mugumo Munene the CEO of Kodris Africa stated,” In a heavily computerised and digital world, a skill set in computer science has become a necessity.”