The first half of Google's Code in Community programme, in Singapore, has ended and around 500 children between the age group of 8-15 have been taught about coding during this period.
As per The Straits Times, a 15-year-old student Celeste Low has taken the 10-week-long programme and with the help of Google, she has developed a programme from scratch that can encrypt secret messages so that they are unreadable to prying eyes.
The 'Code in Cummunity' programme, which started in January, is scheduled to continue until 20 weeks. The programme was launched in partnership with Chinese Development Assistance Council, Eurasian Association, Singapore Indian Development Association (SINDA) and Yayasan Mendaki.
The young coders will start the rest 10-weeks of the programme from July, where 8-11-year-olds will learn the basics through an interactive software programme called Scratch and 12 -15-year-olds will acquire skills in the programming language Python.
The Code in the Community programme will run for three years, and Google aims to reach out to 3,000 young Singaporeans from less privileged backgrounds, by expanding the programme to schools in the next two years, reported the publication.
At the graduation ceremony at the Google Asia Pacific office in Pasir Panjang, Google's director of people operations D. N. Prasad said that the coding skills that have been taught to the children would better prepare them for the future.
"We're truly inspired by what the first cohort of kids to graduate from Code in the Community has achieved. They're having fun while learning, and picking up skills that will prepare them for jobs of the future," said Mr. Prasad.
Senior Minister of State for Finance and Law and President of SINDA Executive Committee, Indranee Rajah also attended the ceremony and viewed some of the demonstrations done by the students including that of Celeste Low.
