Valenzuela City Mayor Weslie "WES" Gatchalian, in partnership with TechnoKids PH, launched the Valenzuela TechnoKids Computer Curriculum and Scratch Programming Tutorial at Valenzuela City Hall on Wednesday, Aug. 30.
The program aims to enhance the city students' technology skills and prepare them for a highly developed future.
TechnoKids PH, established in 2002, is a premier computer service provider in the country that specializes in delivering leading comprehensive computer curriculum to schools. It provides excellent technology skills training to teachers in the schools and their students.
It aims to combine education and technology, providing core computing skills that will help prepare them for a highly developed future.
The Valenzuela TechnoKIds Computer Curriculum practices a project-based learning approach that nurtures real life technological skills of students, the city government said.
TechnoKids PH marketing manager Ms. Carmie Jones encouraged the participants to enjoy the program and told them not to be intimidated or overwhelmed by the concept of “coding.”
"Yung coding po, isang set siya ng mga commands na ipinasok po natin sa isang click of a button. Iyon po ‘yung pag-aaralan natin (Coding is set of commands encoded in a click of a button. That’s what we are going to learn)," Jones said.
The TechnoKids PH said that the one-day Scratch Programming Workshop will be held on Sept. 2 and it will be followed by a mini competition on Sept. 9.
During the workshops, participants will undergo activities on various topics which include scratch interface, sensing blocks, and operating blocks, and will learn to develop quiz games and other applications.
The city government said the workshops will be attended by 20 students and three teachers from each of Valenzuela's selected elementary public schools, namely Malinta Elementary School, Roberta De Jesus Elementary School, Silvestre Lazaro Elementary School, and Gen. T. De Leon Elementary School.
"We are very sure that you’ll enjoy this workshop, as they said, Information Technology is limitless. So whatever application it is that you want to develop is possible. I hope that with this training, you’ll learn, as well as you’ll be problem solvers. Kids these days are very creative, with your fresh minds, I am very sure that you’ll go far," Valenzuela City Councilor Cristina Feliciano-Tan, project coordinator of Valenzuela Techno Camp, said.
In July 2023, the city launched the Valenzuela Techno Camp in collaboration with the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) and Nullspace PH.
The camp offered free coding and robotics classes for public elementary students.
The Techno Camp is the latest component of Valenzuela's award-winning Education 360 Degrees Investment Program, which gives Valenzuelano kids access to free Information Technology and programming lessons.