The North West region hosted its first-ever Hackathon, organized by the Nexgen Higher Institute of Technology in partnership with Camtel at the regional delegation of secondary education. Five schools participated in the competition - GBHS Downtown, PCHS Bamenda, Blessed Comprehensive College, Nancho, and GBHS Bamenda.
Promoter of Hackathon, Dr. Anye Divine
The competition themed "Study Buddy," was the brainchild of Dr. Anye Divine, the promoter of the Hackathon. In an interview with Civiclens, Dr. Anye shared his objectives for bringing this innovative challenge to the North West and why theme Study Buddy.
"Study buddy because alot of disruptions happen in North West Region, if you have a study buddy you can study from home without having to go to school, you can have a group and class session, students can collaborate as a team through the study buddy without necessarily leaving their homes".
"So it is addressing the logistics, availability, accessibility problem that is existing in the North West Region".
"I brought Hackathon to the region to get the youths in the region closer to practical and functional IT, IT that is driven by capacity building, that they learn the skills and know how to do it, we decided to get to secondary schools because that's when they start understanding things. Coming to this region which is predominantly identified as an IT driven economy would bring the youths back where their strengths are "
Regional Pedagogical Inspector of Computer Science, Cleive Ayumbi
The Regional Pedagogical Inspector of Computer Science Cleive Ayumbi, who observed the event, praised the initiative. "ICT is one of the things the Ministry of Secondary Education is promoting so this Hackathon is a giant step within the region and it's
shaping the minds of the students this early so that they can embrace ICT . ICT is the future and it can create jobs"
CEO COMMINSUD, Fon Nsoh
The Coordinator of COMMINSUD, an organization that supports educational initiatives, also expressed his enthusiasm for the event.
"We promote alot of initiatives for students to make sure that students transform the energy they have in them in a positive direction, the Hackathon is one of those ways that young people can bring out the energy they have in them in a very creative way".
"We would be supporting this initiative next year with the sum of 250,000frs and our focus for the support would go towards the air quality monitoring testing system so that we could contribute In having Clean Air for the city of Bamenda. As we have been working on a project on waste management and clean air with UN habitat", CEO COMMINSUD.
PCHS was the best during this competition. The promoter had an expectation for the participants of this competition.
"Hackathon is a continues process and we are expecting those who took part in this competition to clean up their work and represent it again. Hackathon is a challenge to solve a problem and when you actually solve the problem, that's when you are declared winner".
The students who attended the Hackathon were equally enthusiastic.
"I was amazed to see the creative solutions developed by my peers," said a participant from GBHS Bamenda.
The event ended with the distribution of certificates to all participants, who were encouraged to continue exploring their innovative potential.
"This is just the beginning," Dr. Anye assured. "The next Hackathon is scheduled for February 2025, during the youth week and it's going to be on Air quality Monitoring and we are looking forward to having more participation".