By Juliet Umeh

In the drive to promote technopreneur skills  in high school students, a private sector information technology and e-business training company, New Horizons Nigeria in partnership with Baptist Mission Schools has held a  Coding and Robotics Challenge for students.

According to the New Horizons, the competition started in February  while the grand finale was held on March 24, 2022 at Bowen University, Iwo, Osun State.

It said: “The students worked in teams to design their robot and projects with the help of a mentor who trained them on a regular basis. Thereafter, each team submitted a design, business plan, and video pitch of their projects.

“The competition started with 3,782 students at the school levels, 117 students qualified for the Zonal levels while 47 students qualified for the finals.

MD/CEO New Horizons, Mr. Tim Akano, said: “The future of Nigeria lies in the expertise with the fourth industrial technologies which include coding, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, IoT, Blockchain, Cloud security, and Cyber security.

“It’s on that basis New Horizons Nigeria partnered with Baptist Mission school to develop the yearly coding and Robotics competition as the first phase for comprehensive fourth industrial competition amongst students which will include other mission schools like Redeemers, Catholic, Anglican, Methodist, and Deeper life. We achieve all of this with our strategic partnership with international vendors like EC-Council, PMI, ISAACA, and Oracle.”

Also, the Director of Baptist Mission Schools, Dr. Tide Olalere, said:   “We are poised to ensure our children are not left behind in the 21st  century ICT education.”

He disclosed that qualified schools were judged based on App prototype, Presentation slide, Business plan words for the code/robot description, Creativity, Design, Potential Usefulness, Technical Skill, and Presentation. Winners were awarded cash prizes at every stage of the competition and a certificate of participation.