Moise Nahimana from Rulindo district and Yvan Gihozo from Ngoma district are the winners of the 5th edition of the Scratch Programming Competition at high school and primary school levels respectively.

The annualcompetition organised by Rwanda Basic Education Board (REB) is a national level competition which brings together students from all 30 districts of the country.

It serves as an educational tool with a visual programming language that allows students to create their own interactive stories such as animations, games, project-based activities, music, art, etc.

The competition aims to among others promote digital literacy, programming skills among young learners and to prepare future software engineers.

Using the scratch programme, learners are expected to think and reason creatively and systematically, work in teams and apply essential life skills for the 21st century. They use a building block approach in app creation, computational thinking and problem solving. 

The 16 year-old Nahimana, whose project was the best overall, shared his excitement with The New Times. "I’m so happy and very excited. I can’t wait to talk to my parents and tell them that I finally made it,” he said.

Moise Nahimana from GS APEC MurambiI in Rulindo District, Is the best winner of scratch competition at national level, his project was about 'online teaching children with hearing disability .Craish Bahizi

He created an online learning programme specifically designed for kids.

"My project was inspired by my experience during the lockdown due to Covid-19. During the lockdown, we couldn’t continue our studies because we couldn’t afford studying online,” he shared.

"The alternative was to follow class on TV. But it made me realize that online platforms were necessary even for children from poor families, or those with disabilities,” he continued.

Nahimana’s invention enables hearing impaired students to access the platform by availing sign language interpretations for the audio and video content.

Cynthia Nishimwe, who scooped the Best Animation Award, also focused on Children with disabilities. Her project named "Disabled are able” is an animation that highlights the difficulties endured by children with disabilities.

"Even in this competition, we didn’t see children with disabilities. I hope to encourage them to know that they are able to join or do something else. I call the community and parents to do the same as well,” she said.

"Nahimana deserved to win, I also liked his project. But I’m going back to prepare even better because I want to win next year,” she added cheerfully

Laurent Munyentwari, teacher of ICT at Groupe Scolaire APAPEC Murambi, where Nahimana studies, highlighted some challenges that need to be tackled by schools and government.

"This is proof that our children are very smart and able to do creative things. However, there may be some schools where there’s still no electricity, internet or sufficient computers, which hinders their learning process,” he noted.

The annual competition organised by Rwanda Basic Education Board  is a national level competition which brings together students from all 30 districts of the country.

Nelson Mbarushimana, Director of REB, affirmed that the issue is being acted on. "We are doing all we can to supply the needed ICT materials in schools. One example is that in the upcoming budget, we’ll give teachers over 20 thousand computers to facilitate them,” he said.

He assured continuous improvement, as a way to promote the spirit of innovation and creativity, increase critical thinking and creativity in ICT subjects, and to provide progressive effort that helps students to improve with ICT skills in scratch programming language.

The competition started from school level up to District level, with the best 30 winners at district level proceeding at national level, which took place on June 7.

All participants of the competition were given certificates. Awards were distributed in three categories; Best Animation, Best Social and Best Education Content awards.

The winners were awarded with Positivo laptops, school bags, notebooks. Top three winners at both primary and secondary levels were also awarded with medals and trophies for Top winners, Nahimana and Gihozo. 

The competition also serves as an educational tool with a visual programming language that allows students to create their own interactive stories

Nelson Mbarushimana, Director General of Rwanda Education Board addresses the event ,

Some winners pose for a group photo with officials during the event.The competition aims to among others promote digital literacy, programming skills among young learners and to prepare future software engineers.

Scratch Competition-Final stage took place on  Tuesday , June 7, 2022 

The winners were awarded with Positivo laptops, school bags, notebooks.

All participants of the competition were given certificates