The Sierra Leone Grammar School (SLGS), in partnership with The Annie Walsh Old Girls Association UK, has successfully concluded the second edition of the STEM Holiday Club in Freetown.
The four-week intensive training programme, held from July 29th to August 23rd, 2024, at the Grammar School Campus in Murray Town, Freetown, provided free training in Digital Literacy, Coding, Robotics, Multimedia (Graphic Design, Video Production, Audio & Podcasting), and Entrepreneurship to a diverse group of 230 students from 40 schools across the country.
This year saw a significant increase in applications, with over 500 students from 69 schools applying.
Ultimately, 230 students from 40 schools were selected, maintaining a balanced gender ratio of 53% female to 47% male.
Metro/Zoodlabs an education and connectivity partner, provided secure internet access, t-shirts, notepads, USB memory sticks media and publicity efforts to ensure the program was a success.
In addition to core subjects, the programme included training in new courses such as Entrepreneurship and Audio & Podcasting.
Gracing the event, the Minister of Communications, Madam Salima Bah, commended private sector players for ensuring the success of this year’s event; noting that subsequent competitions will be better.
Minister Bah said that, the establishment of the Directorate of Science Technology and Innovation, is a manifestation of government commitment to be part of the global digital transformation such as the Tech Summit that was recently hosted in Sierra Leone.
The Minister said that with emerging digital transformation, the youths of Sierra Leone are ready to be problem solvers using their various IT skills and knowledge and the government is doing everything possible for the country not to be behind in the digital market.
She thanked the Management of Sierra Leone Grammar School for providing the platform where students were opportune to be engaged in learning which prevented many from being idle during the holiday.
The Human Resources Associate of Zoodlabs Agnes Jigba, expressed happiness in the success of the event; noting the significance of Zoodlabs and Metro Cables.
She noted that, RASAB as the parental body of Zoodlabs and Metro Cables has invested greatly in the digital space and financial services in the country which underscores their commitment to human capital development in building the country’s human workforce.
Madam Jigba said that their contributions to the Sierra Leone Grammar School STEM program manifest their desire to build the capacity of young professionals in the field of information and communication.
She said that RASAB Group and its subsidiaries will be developing a bigger and structured intervention in building STEM skills among school going pupils through the provision of high speed internet facilities to schools, providing supports for boot camps and hackathons that focuses on schools and colleges.
During the two week event, 20 secondary school pupils and university students were engaged as Faculty assistants and to assist in managing the club, fostering long-term capacity building and sustainability.
Students were taught to code, build and programme Robots, and produced multimedia projects in graphic design, video, and audio during the session.
This initiative introduces attendees from the 2023 cohort of the Stem Holiday Club with skills to nurture their entrepreneurship tendencies to develop business ideas into viable products that they can eventually pitch for a cash prize.
Cash prices ranging from SLE4000, SLE2500 and SLE1500 were distributed to the outstanding performers at the end of the program as a symbol of motivation.
Pupils were grouped according to set themes and tasked with developing products to address Sports, Health, Finance, Transport, Art, Agriculture and Climate.
Alumni at home and abroad gave support to the initiative, while four dedicated facilitators travelled from across the globe at their own expense to support the learning camp in Sierra Leone.
Parents and students expressed profound appreciation for the programme, with many requesting it to become a regular or longer-term initiative.
Eric Kawa, Journalist and Broadcaster spoke passionately about his journey, including his selection to the CNN Academy and the CGTN fellowship programme in Beijing.
Grace Yilla, shared her experiences as a female in a male-dominated engineering field.
Sidi Saccoh, CEO of Niyo Group, encouraged students to dream big and not be deterred by negative feedback.
John Akinola, International Producer & Broadcasting Consultant highlighted the power of curiosity and asked the right questions.
Emily Fanday, Serial Entrepreneur and CEO, discussed raising capital and taking calculated risks
