Supporting the next generation of digital makers in Iraq

Economically vulnerable families may most likely resort to negative coping methods such as child labor, begging, and child marriage as a result of COVID difficulties (Mercy Corps 02/2020)

Multiple crises, including continuous fighting, protracted displacement, economic disaster, and following social and political tensions, have hampered Iraq's education sector for decades. New issues arose since 2019, including public unrest and waves of protests that began in October 2019, and the economic ramifications of COVID-19 containment measures in March 2020, which coincided with a sharp decline in oil prices. These new challenges are putting even greater strain on an already weakened educational system, limiting access to education leaving 1.2 million people in need in Iraq. Many children have lost years of schooling due to conflict and severe shortages of schools and teachers. At the end of 2019, there were approximately 345,000 children remaining out of school, with school dropouts continuing to be an issue in 2020. Iraq is an oil-dependent economy, with oil accounting for 56% of GDP, 99% of export revenues, and 90% of taxes. With oil prices plummeting in 2016 and a historic dip in early 2020, it is expected that oil and gas income for a number of significant producers will drop by 50% to 58% in 2020 compared to 2019. A new approach is needed to empower the young generation with skills important to have better economic dependency. After COVID, the world realised the importance of learning digital skills and more importantly how to teach digital making and information technology (ICT).

Primary public schools in Iraq don’t offer ICT curriculum and although private schools do, their teaching methods are based on memorising the information instead of creative thinking development which prevents them from developing the skills they need in a workplace. One of the UN's recommendations is to provide alternate teacher training pathways for women from rural backgrounds in order to boost the number of female teachers in remote areas and to serve as a role model for girls in the formal labour market. (HRO Report). Moreover, supporting digital skills for young people is crucial as youth unemployment around the world continues, with particular severity in Iraqi communities. While the technology industry grows rapidly, employers are facing a shortage of professional coders. 

Maysan province (400km southeast Baghdad) contains a majority of families with low income or no income that make private schools unaffordable, Maysan was one of the provinces that got affected by the demonstrations in 2019 and was hit severely with COVID. The majority of children of Maysan are less likely to attend school at all levels, and during COVID19, students who live in the rural areas were without access to technology and were left behind with no proper education. All teachers didn’t get any training to deal with using technology nor how to give online classes. Almost all schools depended on using telegram as a teaching platform, neglecting safeguarding and functionality of online teaching.

Our solution provides training and kits, it provides training to educators to help them support STEM education for the students in their schools, aiming for 40% female participation. The training will include children safeguarding, how to positively manage a class, and coding essentials. These educators will then be able to run a Code Club in their school. Code Club is a global network of free coding clubs for 9–13 year olds, it was established in England and currently has more than 13,000 active clubs around the world including Iraq.  40% of the young people who attend Code Club are female. Code Clubs held in community spaces and tech hubs or maker-spaces have a slightly higher proportion of female attendees (46%) than schools (42%) and libraries (37%). 10% of volunteers reported that their club has attendees or volunteers from lower-income backgrounds, 3% said that their club has attendees or volunteers with lower levels of education, and 4% said that their club has attendees or volunteers who have a disability (Code Club Annual Survey). 

Part of our solution is to provide every school that had their teachers successfully finish the training and register a Code Club in their school with an educational kit that will include hardware and guidelines. (raspberry pi, Micro:bit, flash memory with common programs like Scratch, guide in Arabic or the code club projects in Arabic as pdf … ). 

We are targeting schools with a shortage in technology equipment and lack of teachers’ ICT training. The aim is to support teachers, students, parents and volunteers. Our research suggests there are 50 of schools that fit this criteria  Our main focus will go to schools operating in low income communities and rural areas, we are aiming to target all the 50 schools.

The project will empower children and their teachers to participate in local and national programs. It will boost their confidence and will make learning more engaging and fun. 

“I want to be famous when I grow up, the skills and knowledge I’ve gained from being a Code Club member will help me achieve my dreams!” _ Alaa (Female, 10 years)

“ The training from Nadia has helped me a lot, even outside of club-based activities, and I have been able to use the skills I developed from volunteering at Code Club in other areas of my life too, like public speaking, delivering training, communications and public relations, logical thinking, and ofcourse, coding!” _ Zahraa (Female trainer, currently doing her MSc in AI).

94% of the Code Club volunteers agreed that since taking part in Code Club, the young people that they reach have improved their programming skills. 92% reported that the young people that they reach have improved confidence in their computer skills, and 92% reported that the young people that they reach are more interested in programming and computers. Educators and volunteers were also positive about the impact of Code Club on the ability of attendees to solve problems with computers (88% agreed that attendees had improved their skills in this regard), and 83% agreed that attendees are more able to teach others computer skills.  (Code Club Annual Survey).

Since 2018 I have been building a strong and involved community of club leaders, they are educators working at universities, schools and volunteers from the youth centers. As a team established solid relationships with the local government, the department of education and the department of youth and sport. 

We started our first Code Club at the Amara Technical Institute in Maysan, Iraq. We trained 15 female trainers to support them to run their own clubs. During the pandemic (COVID 19), we continued supporting our community by providing online sessions for children and club readers. We also provided training sessions to faculty of universities with partnership with IEEE youth professional-Iraq branch and Code for Iraq initiative to help them with teaching online and we provided training to teachers in some schools in Maysan. The online collaboration made us reach more teachers and volunteers who showed an interest to run a Code Club in their community, currently we support 3 clubs in Najaf (2 of them inside the Technical Engineering College), an all females school in Babylon, Baghdad, Diwanya, Wasit, Dhi Qar and the next target for 2022 is Basra and Karbala. 

In 2020, we became the Raspberry Pi National partner in Iraq for Code Club. We are part of a global community with the benefits of mutual collaboration. The Foundation supports our team with resources, meetups and workshops. We are also part of the AstroPi project which is an event supported by the Raspberry Pi and the ESA. We started with 8 children in 2018 participating with CoderDojo Votanikos to send their messages to space and currently we have more than 100 children involved from 5 countries. 

We have more than 20 volunteers from different departments, the majority are females. Most of them are either from computer science or engineering backgrounds. However, we also have trainers from different backgrounds, this guide our training of trainers curriculum. We tailor our training to the needs of educators, for example if they come from a non-computer science background, we offer them the basics of programming and how to adopt programming in their field of teaching.

In 2021, we offered a graphic designer volunteering opportunities for newly graduates. We built a team of 4 designers, they took specific training and continued guidance to develop their skills. They showed great improvement and some of them secured a paid designing  job.

We are part of the Raspberry Pi Foundation Arabic translation team, Dr. Nadia is the Arabic language coordinator with other 50+ volunteers who work to translate the resources used in our clubs to Arabic to break the language barriers and make it easier to learn coding.

When I was a little girl I didn’t find a mentor to help me with electronics, I only heard voices saying I won’t make it. This is why I am supporting the growth of code club leaders and mentoring girls and female trainers. I want to give them a chance to grow their confidence and believe in themselves. I always wanted to study at MIT but I couldn’t, being a Solver will mean that I will be part of MIT and it will provide our team with the partnership we need to grow. We would receive one-of-a-kind support from specialists who can help us expedite our effect, as well as guidance from mentors on how to improve our solution, so that we can scale our work in Iraq and possibly support other countries in the area. We also value the ability to connect to the network and learn from one another, since we believe that sharing and cooperation are critical in the educational sector. 

Our main weakness as a team is lack of strategic planning, being part of the solver community we will have the opportunity to work with and benefit from the expertise of this community and the MIT.  We will also gain the most powerful tool to reach out locally and globally through gaining exposure through the media and the conference. Winning in the Challenge can help us build recognition, trust, and awareness.

Code Club projects are themed around topics that young people care about, providing a 'trojan horse' approach to engaging them in coding - whether that be music, gaming, design, sustainability. This enables us to change the perception of coding among a broader demographic of students.

Providing light touch training to teachers (to teach Code Clubs) who have never taught coding, as opposed to a comprehensive training course that may be quite intimidating, acts as a stepping stone. 

We provide ongoing training and engagement opportunities to teachers who join our community to support their development. We also help more people develop more advanced skills and take  pathways towards becoming highly skilled in a particular area or range  of areas. The skills gained through problem-solving and creative making can enrich people’s lives and enable them to engage with society in meaningful ways.

Our 2022 target is to create clubs in 4 new provinces in Iraq (Dhi Qar, Wasit, Basra and Karbala). By the end of Feb 2022, we provided training to educators from Al Tadamun School for orphans in Dhi Qar and volunteers from Wasit province that work with the Department of Youth and Sport. We are also targeting 10 schools in Maysan, the educators of these schools didn’t get any safeguarding nor ICT training.  

For Karbala, it will be a continuous training sponsored by Al Sabit research center . We partnered with the center to provide training for Ataba schools which surve 5000 unprivileged and orphans students. We will target 100 educators from these schools in the first year and continue for the next year to cover all Ataba schools.

For the next five years, our target is to have at least one club in the 18 provinces of Iraq. We are aiming to do this through our training of educators and our collaboration with the Ministry of Youth and Sports and the Ministry of Education. 

• Survey for educators to monitor levels of knowledge and skills.

• Number of new registered clubs.

• Number of educators participating in the training.

• Number of students attending a club.

• Number of students participating in events (Coolest Projects, Moonhack, Astro Pi…etc).

Goal : Our ultimate goal is for more people to have better lives and a positive impact on society because they have learned how to make things with technology.

How we do it : We do this by helping people learn about computers and how to make things with computers. We believe that making is the best way to learn about digital tools, and we encourage people to learn through ‘digital Making’.

Computing is the study of computers, how they work, how to use them effectively, and how they affect the world. It includes computer science, information technology, and digital literacy. Digital making brings together the power of digital technology and the philosophy of the maker community: people create meaningful things using digital technology, and they learn as they do so. 

Outcome 1: More Iraqis feel that learning about computing and digital making is relevant, accessible, and worthwhile: Through Code Club we make young people and educators in Iraq aware of the possibilities that digital skills can open up, and of where and how to develop those skills. We show our community that computing and digital making are topics that anyone can learn, even if it is hard sometimes. To support this, we provide examples that computing and digital making are relevant and fun, so that people are encouraged to learn more, and feel empowered to do so.

Outcome 2: More Iraqi people get involved in activities that help them to learn about computing and digital making. We provide opportunities to help people develop the knowledge and skills they need to participate in computing and digital making. From the start, it is important for people to take an active approach to learning, solve problems, and create something tangible, so that they  understand the nature of computing and digital making and the sense of achievement they can give. More Iraqi educators gaining introductory skills leads to a greater understanding  of the power of computing and digital making and the problems they  can solve. These skills can be gained through informal learning, through  learning in communities, or through formal education. Our activities  provide structured opportunities for informal learning, they support  communities to grow and help others learn, and they help Iraqi teachers to  provide formal education in computing and digital making in engaging  and effective ways. 

Outcome 3: More people develop knowledge,  skills, and confidence in computing and  digital making. Once people have gained skills, they have a choice to continue to  develop these further. We work to encourage more Iraqis to make  these positive choices, regardless of their backgrounds. People make  choices for a number of different reasons, and our work takes this into  account by providing a wide variety of role models, as well as various  contexts and routes for engaging with computing and digital making. 

Our work takes account of prior learning and provides the  challenges and incentives people need to progress and challenge  themselves. Making choices and learning advanced skills is an ongoing process,  with people mastering one area, deciding to master another, and then  continuing to learn. This process takes place even for those seen as  experts in computing and digital making.  In some areas, the skills for this meaningful action can be acquired  quickly, while in others, it can take longer. They may achieve this through a variety of  pathways, including through gaining formal qualifications that lead to jobs and careers.

We aim to help more Iraqis  from every background to enter into this cycle and develop their skills. Some of those who become more skilled play an important role  in teaching and supporting others to learn. We encourage and  support people to use the skills they have learned to give back to  their communities and support the learning of others. This is why an  important part of our activities is to inspire people to help others to  learn, and to make sure that they have the skills they need to do so. 

Ultimately with sufficient computing and digital making skills, more Iraqi people will  act to solve problems and express themselves creatively in Iraq.

At Code Club, young people typically work through resources to learn new skills. The Raspberry Pi Foundation (RPi) provides resources in 26 languages to break the language barrier, Arabic language is one of the priority languages and there is a team of more than 50 volunteers who support the Raspberry Pi in translating the resources. 

The RPi Foundation continually updates and publishes new resources which are free to use by our clubs, we call them learning paths. By following these paths students will learn programming using Scratch and Python, design websites using HTML/CSS, create music with Sonic Pi, make 3D animations and games using Blender and Unity.

Students can develop their digital making skills by following hardware paths such as Raspberry Pi, Micro:bit and Sense Hat. In our clubs we also use Makey Makey for the STEM sessions.  Students can also work on subject specific paths including the Look After Yourself to raise awareness about their mental health and Protect Our Planet path to encourage them to support the environment and be aware of the possible ways to help planet earth.

When we started our journey in Maysan-Iraq, we wanted to offer this opportunity to female only trainers. Maysan has its tribal community where women are set into certain work positions list, ICT female trainers are not among that list. We started by training 14 females in Maysan and currently we have more than 40 trained females in different provinces of Iraq including Baghdad, Babylon, Salah al deen, Qadysia, Di Qar and Maysan. We are proud that 90% of our volunteers are females, we aim to have a 40% female participation ratio for both our training of trainers and for our club sessions. 

We also offer training to volunteers regardless of their educational background, religion, and beliefs. We offered online sessions to children from the refugee camp in Jordan, children who live in Egypt and we are continuing to support the underprivileged communities in Iraq.   

Value Proposition

We offer three primary value propositions: accessibility, STEM related, and quality.

We provide accessibility by providing the learning projects in Arabic which is the main language in Iraq. We also offer online teacher teacher training for those who can’t attend in person training. We also provide cost free training to make learning affordable to all.

We make our sessions STEM related by taking the responsibility to go through the current curriculum for science and maths and tailor our projects based on the subjects in the curriculum.

Code Club Iraq ensures quality by offering up to date training to both children and educators. 

Channels

We promote our activities through our social media pages, advertising, participation in university opening days, and the Code Club blog.

Customer Relationships

We built great relations with our community and got the support from different unions.

Key Activities

• Provide training to educators to empower them and help them run their clubs

• Marketing the training to teachers and schools in the targeted provinces

• Measuring impact of our work

• Offering toolkits to schools with successfully enrolled teachers after they finish the training.

Key Partners

• The Iraq Ministry of Youth and Sports

• The Raspberry Pi Foundation

• Code Club Global

• Maysan Department of Education

Key Resources

• We rely on our greatest resource, our volunteers who lead various children training programs online and offline.

• Teachers who take initiative and enrol in our online training of trainers.

• The Raspberry Pi Foundation projects that we use in our sessions.

• Support of our local unions to provide venues and logistics.

We have plans to build our own training center by the end of 2022, we will offer specialised courses to graduates and employment seekers. We will have office spaces and meeting/conference rooms that we will open for daily rent. We will continue to grow our partnerships with the organisations in the area to exchange services and we can offer paid consultation for the government departments. 

In the long term, we will benefit from the mobile application path and produce our own applications and put them for the market. We can build websites and we can offer graphic design for companies and associations. 

In Dec 2020 we won fourth place in a local competition (Golden Dream) organised by Mr. Hisham Al Dahabi and secured a grant that we are putting towards building our centre. We have donations from parents, volunteers and from our community to support our work in Iraq. 

We also encouraged universities to participate in expanding Code Club in Iraq, we established clubs in the Amara Technical Institute - Southern Technical University and the Technical College of Engineering - Najaf - Al-Furat Al-Awsat Technical University. We also rely on fresh graduates and university students who seek to gain employment experience to volunteer as trainers, media designers, ..etc 

We made partnerships with local organisations such as the Engineering Union and the Writers Union in Maysan, they provided cost free venues to our clubs.