ISLAMABAD (PRESS RELEASE)
In collaboration with the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecom, Tech Valley along with Telecom Foundation and Virtual University successfully expanded the footprint of the CS First program to multiple provinces of Pakistan including Federal territory, Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. To mark the successful completion of Phase 2 of the Google CS First program and Be Internet Awesome, all the stakeholders gathered at the Ministry of IT and Telecom along with kids who shared their success stories and projects with Google’s team in Singapore. At the event, Federal Minister of IT and Telecom, Syed Amin Ul Haque said, “I believe this program have the potential to lay a good foundation for ICT Development in the country, as in 10-15 years time, we will have young coders and programmers who will by the Grace of Almighty Allah making good strides in the coding community and creating amazing applications and software”. He said that Ministry of IT is taking steps for the development of youth as youth are our future. He said that it is very positive that 316 students and 69 teachers have been given training in the first two phases of this program. He said it is the need of the hour to equip our youth with digital skills. Syed Amin Ul Haque said that it is important motto of Ministry of IT and Telecommunication to empower women. Ministry of IT is taking strong initiatives for provision of internet services in far-flung areas of the country, he said. The purpose of this Phase was not only to help underprivileged kids learn coding through Google CS First but also to make kids internet awesome by acquainting them with safe internet surfing. With the high exposure of the digital world to kids nowadays, it is essential to make them aware of dos and don’ts so that they take the maximum advantage of the internet. Syed Zomma Mohiuddin, MD Telecom Foundation, said despite all the disadvantages of the Covid 19 pandemic, the Google CS1 program provided the right means of education and enablement of the students. CEO Tech Valley Pakistan, Umar Farooq said, “We aim to create Google CS First coding clubs from kids in different schools of Pakistan where they can learn grass-root coding and receive mentorship from experienced trainers.” Because of the success and interest generated through the first two phases, conversations on taking Google CS First at the national level have been initiated in order to introduce it country-wide. For this purpose, Tech Valley Pakistan will organize a hackathon for kids (aged 9-14 years) in which students will create story-based interactive games using scratch.