Celebrating Code in the Community and Looking Ahead Towards the 10th Anniversary

Code in the Community students, volunteers, parents as well as current and future partners gathered at Google APAC office on 23 May to celebrate the impact the programme made to date and to look ahead at the future of the programme. The event was organised by Saturday Kids, Google, Infocomm Media Development Agency (IMDA), in support of Digital for Life, and graced by the Guest of Honour, Ms. Rahayu Mahzam, Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Communications and Information and Ministry of Health.* 

With the help of public and private partners — including Google and IMDA — and over 1000 committed volunteers, CITC 1.0 (2017-2019) and CITC 2.0 (2020-2022) reached over 3500 kids from disadvantaged families in Singapore. As the CITC 2.0 programme is near completion, we are at a critical junction to call on partners across sectors to join forces to sustain and scale the essential learning opportunities for Singaporean children in need in coming years through CITC 3.0 (2023-2026). The demand for the programme has grown over time, evident from the enrolment waitlist as well as the number of partners engaged in the programme.

During the event, Neha Agarwal, CITC volunteer and Vice President at Citibank Singapore emphasised that “CITC imparts kids with programming skills but more than that it gives them hope. The hope for a bright future by giving them the experience of joy of technology.” 

To date, the programme has impacted the lives of thousands of CITC students in unique ways. Zia, who has been taking CITC Scratch and Python classes, shared that the programme sparked her interest in coding, and she now leads a robotics club at her school. Ian, another CITC student said the programme guided his decision to apply for School of Science and Technology as well as helped strengthen his portfolio needed for Direct School Admission for secondary school.

The student project exhibition exemplified not only the new skills the students gained through the programme but also their creativity, problem-solving skills, resilience and growth mindset which are all crucial to thrive in the rapidly changing 21st Century world we live in. 

Anthony, one of the students who exhibited the projects at the event, shared about a fall detection and notification tool, “XtraCare”, developed to give caretakers the ability to tend to and support the elderly when they fall or need support. 

In the partnership panel discussion, John Tan, Founder and Chairman of Saturday Kids, noted “What’s really important is that CITC is a platform for everyone to come together to provide kids with learning opportunities. It goes far beyond learning to code. The ability to learn how to learn, learning agility, is far more important.” 

Through CITC, Saturday Kids aims to realise a world where every kid is empowered with skills and mindset to purposefully apply the potential of technology to shape a better future.

Looking ahead to 2023 and more, Saturday Kids is seeking partners from the public and private sector, as well as community organisations to join forces to continue on with Code in the Community 3.0 to respond to the growing demand of the programme.

Reach out to Code in the Community at [email protected] for more information on how your organisation can join the CITC movement. 

Watch the highlight video from the event:

*Ms Rahayu Mahzam was promoted to Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Ministry of Health and Ministry of Law in June 2022.