CSED Unveils Plan To Scale Up Sporting Coders Programme in Nigeria

By Eric Ojo

Community Sports and Educational Development (CSED) Initiative has expressed its resolve to consistently explore the possibility of rolling out the Sporting Coders programme across Nigeria’s federating states.

CSED Initiative is a sport for change Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) with a mission to use Nigerian children and youth participating in sports related activities to promote literacy and their social well-being. Its primary goal is to develop well balanced future sports men and women.

The NGO also aims at using sports to empower young persons to fulfil their potentials and achieve their dream of earning a living, while representing Nigeria in international sporting competitions.

The spokesman for the organization, Edema Fuludu disclosed this while speaking at an event to mark the graduation of 21 female students of Tare Pet Montessori Group of Schools, Yanagoa, Bayelsa State, who participated in the Sporting Coders pilot programme that was facilitated by CSED Initiative and the Management of the school.

Fuludu, a former footballer who played internationally for the Nigeria national team and a member of Nigeria’s squad for the 1994 African Cup of Nations, said the CSED is open to partnership, sponsorship and networking with other relevant NGOs, corporate organisations, as well as educational institutions.

According to him, subject to the availability of funds, they will consider doing the Sporting Coders training for residents of hard-to-reach community such as camps for the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs,) refugees and rural areas/wards of the state.

“This project is very scalable depending on the level of preparedness of the benefitting schools, particularly in terms of having the required infrastructure in place, a minimum of 20 laptops and electricity”, he said.

Notably, this first of its kind programme in Nigeria which combined training in the sport of netball and coding is aimed at introducing the participants to basic training in coding, as well as laying the foundation for them to consider future careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematic (STEM), an area where the females are currently underrepresented.

The 12 weeks training which started in the first week of January 2024, involved the participants doing their coding training every Saturday morning for a period of two hours, which is then followed by two hours of netball training. Free lunch was provided to the netballers by the school cooks.

In order to sustain the interest of the students from the rigorous training of the netball coaches that are led by Funsho Ekundayo, the students were provided with two educational vouchers worth N10,000 on each occasion.

In addition, three of their ex-netball colleagues who are now in universities were provided with educational vouchers worth N50,000 by the training organisers, who have Lord’s Taverners, a United Kingdom (UK) based charity as their kits’ supplier.

During the period of the training course, the students were also provided with twelve netball training/match balls and two separate sets of sports jerseys and training bibs.

CSED Initiative equally donated 110 general interest books to the school library, as well as a new laptop to the Management of the school, who did everything within their power to ensure the success of the training programme.

The parents of the 21 students were also not to be outdone, as they showed up in numbers during the school’s recently held inter-house sport competition and on the gradation day of the Sporting Coders programme, in order to support their daughters.

In her remarks at the occasion, the proprietress of Tare Pet Montessori Group of Schools, Mrs. Victoria Mologe advised the students to work hard and consider developing their sporting talent, while still pursuing their academic or professional careers.

Meanwhile, Tare Pet School are currently the netball champions of Bayelsa State. The captain of the team, Alaere Wisdom lauded the coaches, parents, teachers and the sponsors for providing them with the opportunity to access this free girl child friendly training programme.

Similarly, the director in charge of technical matters in the Bayelsa State Sports Council, Mrs. Catherine Sasoude thanked the sponsors for investing in the leaders of tomorrow.

Mrs. Catherine stated that while growing up in the 80s her parents used to discourage her from taking part in sports, but she managed to combine sport and education together. As a result, she is now supporting her two daughters to take part in sports, and netball is currently their sport of choice, after they have tried other sports.

On his part, the Head of School Sports Coordinators in Bayelsa State, Mr. Godwin Adagbo observed that the CSED Initiative training of games masters and games mistresses under their Project 2027 programme is currently yielding positive results in the state.

Interestingly, the Bayelsa State Sports Council is the only Sports Council in Nigeria that currently have a functioning netball team that takes part in competitions.

Certificates were presented to the graduating students of the Sporting Coders programme in the presence of their cheering parents, teachers, and fellow students.

The biggest cheer of the day was the announcement that the 21 graduates of this programme would be provided with a N50,000 educational voucher by the organisers, once they show proof of being offered admission into a tertiary educational institution in future.

Moreover, these new graduates would be supported to access online safeguarding training, and they will be tasked with supporting 10 local primary schools to develop their netball access training through the “Bee netball pathway”.