On 7^th June 2022, The Rwanda Basic Education Board (REB) conducted the Scratch programming competition at national level for all the primary and secondary schools.

60 Primary and Secondary students competed at national level. 2 students were representing each district.

GIHOZO YVAN BRUNO from Ngoma District at EP GAFUNZO was the winner of primary scratch competition at national level, his project was about 'CHOGM MEETING”

NAHIMANA MOISE from Rulindo district at GS APAPEC MURAMBI, was the best winner of secondary scratch competition at national level, his project was about 'online teaching children with hearing disability.

During the ceremony, Director General of Rwanda Basic Education Board appreciated all the participants and supporter in Scratch competition, “We thank you students for showcasing your skills in ICT, we thank you schools and teachers for supporting these young children, and we also do thank different partners in education sector especially in ICT in education.” He spoke

Scratch is an educational tool with a visual programming language that makes it easy for students to create their own interactive stories such as, animations, games, project-based activities, music, and art. It helps young children to learn better, to apply their knowledge, to solve given problems, to reason systematically, to work collaboratively and to develop essential 21^st century skills.

REB introduced the annual Scratch competition in Rwanda to promote digital literacy and programming skills among young learners and to prepare future engineers. This activity is in line with the fourth (4th) priority of the Education Sector Strategic Plan (ESSP) related to "Enhance the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to transform teaching and learning and support the improvement of quality across all levels of education in Rwanda"

The competition mainly evaluates the capacity of students to think creatively, reason systematically, work collaboratively the essential skills for life in 21 st Century skills, computational thinking and problem solving using a powerful yet simple to use building block approach to app creation using scratch program.

The main objectives are:To promote the spirit of innovation and creativity,

To increase critical thinking and creativity in ICT Subject, To provide progressive effort that helps students to improve with ICT Skills in scratch programming language, The competition will also help Sector Education Inspector (SEI), District Education (DEO) and Rwanda Education Board to identify best performing schools at sector, district and National level. The identified schools will serve as role model to other schools on programming.

The competition started from school level up to National level; all the 60 participants of scratch competition at national level were awarded scholastic material. The 2 best winners at national level (primary student and secondary student) were awarded laptops and scholastic materials.

Source: reb.gov.rw