The Bayelsa Education Development Trust Fund on Tuesday commenced a 60 day Robotics Challenge amongst secondary schools across the eight Local Government Areas (LGAs) of the state.

Speaking at a brief opening ceremony, Dr Gentle Emelah, Commissioner of Education, said that Bayelsa has been steadily investing in technology across levels of education adding that the robotics and coding challenge was part of the plans to deepen technology and innovation amongst the youths.

Emelah said that Bayelsa has fully integrated digital learning platforms for all public primary schools in four of the eight LGAs in Bayelsa.

In her opening remarks, Dr Alice Atuwo, Executive Secretary of the fund recalled that robotics and coding was introduced in 2022 to 13 selected Model Secondary schools with 103 students participating in the holiday training that lasted for 30 days.

She said that the fund has fully equipped the model secondary schools with Information and Communications Technology (ICT) gadgets.

According to Atuwo, all the model secondary schools get a monthly support of N50,000 to provide internet connection, consumables and minor maintainable to keep the robotics programmes running.

She said that the robotics and coding programme was a component of the Science, Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) policy that the fund was promoting in Bayelsa to make our students ready for the future.

“For those who may ask the question, why robotics ? The answer is why not robotics. Robotics brings abstract knowledge to realities and our children can understand how robots can be deployed to accomplish tasks and provide solutions to everyday challenges,” Atuwo said.

The Executive Secretary aexplained the the students would undergo trainings in robotics and coding, build and programme their robots to tackle issues of climate change.

Also speaking, Prof Francis Sikoki, Chairman of the Trust’s Board said that technology skills in areas like robotics was essential in today’s digital world driven by knowledge and innovation

He said that the educational development trust was ensuring the provision of science labour stories in all secondary schools in the state.

On her part, Mrs Stellar Uzochukwu a representative of Oddysey Educational Foundation, facilitators of the Bayelsa 2024 Robotics Challenge applauded Bayelsa government for supporying the programme.

She said that the programme would enable the youths to leverage on the knowledge they will acquire in coding and robotics to tackle the challenges posed by climate change in Bayelsa.

In a goodwill message , Dr Charles Daniel, Chairman, Bayelsa House of Assembly Committee on Education advised the participating students the make good use of the rare opportunity to build their capacity and contribute to solving problems of the society.

He commended the fund for the impact of their interventions in all levels of the educational sector in Bayelsa.