NGA shares progress in teaching Coding & Robotics to young children

The management of New Generation Academy (NGA) has revealed that after a journey of more than three years of teaching Coding and Robotics program, there is a significant stride in students’ achievements.

New Generation Academy, is a private school with the Cambridge program, located in Kimihurura Sector, Gasabo District, Kigali City. It offers coding and robotics programs from Nursery kids. Different partners visited the school this Saturday, August 24, 2024 to follow up the program as a pilot project that is being conducted there.

NGA visitors were included CEO of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), staff from Rwanda Coding Academy and Benax Technologies (a Rwandan start-up involved in educational technologies), government officials, among others.

“Some of our visitors today are Rwandans who studied advanced technologies in Japan with the support of JICA. We are gaining the fruits from these technologies because they helped us to design the curriculum for the Coding and Robotics”, Mr. Jean Claude Tuyisenge, the co-founder of NGA said.

“One of the things we are proud of is seeing primary school children who are able to compete with high school students and perform well. Last time 10 children from this school were rewarded by the Head of State. During this three-year journey, our children attended the competition in the United States of America, but what we are very happy about is that the government is expanding this program to reach other schools. We became a model, what we did is a good example that what people have been trying to do for a long time is possible”, Mr. Tuyisenge highlighted.

One of the challenges they face is getting basic materials for children to make robots, but they are putting effort into using locally made ones.

“I was in Japan between 2016 and 2018, when I was pursuing a Master’s degree, that’s when I saw that they start teaching technology at a very young age while at home they were waiting for them to grow up, so I had the idea to bring those courses to Rwanda. I designed this project to teach technology to young children; now I’m trying it at the New Generation Academy where we started in 2021. We’ve learnt a lot of things to the extent that in five years we’ll have enough information to be able to go to other schools” Mr. Baziramwabo stated.

Discussing about the importance of technology among young kids, Mr. Baziramwabo emphasized that everything you start at a young age becomes like second nature. He said he was impressed about how NGA students are on the same level as those of Rwanda Coding Academy where he teaches embedded systems.

“The difference is that those at Rwanda Coding Academy think of projects that are money oriented because they are older but the technology they use is the same. If it is robot programming, thinking of a problem you can solve (such as catching thieves, making good use of electricity, cameras that can detect that you have arrived at home, a system that detects that the child is crying and comforts him), the technology they use is the same”, he noted.

Mugisha Mpore Arthur, a lower secondary student at New Generation Academy, said that learning coding and robotics at a young age is very helpful because in the future the world will be digital, so it is better to prepare early.

 Laser Cutting and engraving machines, 3D printing machines, Pick and Place Machine are among key equipment found at New Generation Academy.