The National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools (NAPPS), Abuja Chapter in partnership with African Code is training over 400 teachers in the Federal Capital and its environs.

Mrs Samira Jamira, the President of the association made this known in Abuja on Wednesday at the opening of the train the trainer project.

Jamira said that the teachers were trained on Information Communication Technology (ICT) coding.

The president explained that the training was borne out of the need for teachers to equip themselves with happenings in the digital world.

According to her, students of nowadays are more conversant of the things around the world hence the need to get them prepared for the future.

“We are in a digital world and there is no one who can escape from this.

“For teachers, it is better to equip them well so that they can impact same to the students.

“Over 400 teachers are being trained on ICT coding. Today the students are challenging and will keep the teachers on their toes.

“So it is important for teachers to know the terrain and as such replicate the training to their respective schools,” she said.

Jamira added that the training was the second in its time as the training of 160 teachers in FCT was conducted in 2016 to build their capacity in such area.

She however, urged them to share the same best practice to have a better society.

Also, Mr Olajide Ajayi, National Coordinator, African Code Week said the language of today and future was coding.

Ajayi said that the project was aimed at teaching a minimum of 200 students in each school on coding.

He explained that the training was crucial as it ensured that the trainers gave back what had been learnt to the students.

The coordinator disclosed that Nigerian teachers would join their counterparts in the African region to teach coding to students.

“African code week is a phenomenon that started in 2015 and it is basically to empower the next generation of African youths.

“It tries to introduce teachers to modern ways of teaching on how to code as you are aware that coding is the language of the future and now.

“So for young kids to be fluent in this language, we need to start at a very early age.

“Most of the things we have around us like phones, television, airplane and the rest have a code running in them, hence the need to expose the students to it,” Ajayi said.

He also said that by February 2018, students would be competing on the knowledge of coding adding that the best students would be awarded.

Dr Amina Sowola, Head of Department, Computer Science in the University of Abuja said the coding knowledge was important to get the students abreast of digital knowledge around the world.

Sowola called on teachers to transfer the knowledge to the upcoming generation that would in turn replicate same to the entire nation.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports teachers from Nasarawa and Niger States, Secondary Education Board, FCT, UBEC and Education Resource Centres were among the teachers who participated in the training.

The training process would commence between Oct. 18 and Oct. 25 across African countries.

NAN