Sporting Coders: Empowering Bayelsa Schoolgirls with Netball and Coding Skills

Akeem Busari

CSED (Community Sports and Educational Development) Initiative in a recent press release has confirmed that four of the twenty-one secondary school students who participated in the 12-week-long Sporting Coders pilot programme are now currently studying at the university.

The Sporting Coders programme involved the netballers of Tare Pet Montessori Group of Schools in Yenagoa (Bayelsa State), combining netball training with learning how to code. The pilot project, which was designed and powered by the CSED Initiative, was implemented by Funsho Ekundayo and Victoria Allison Ayebaifie (netball coaches) and Humphrey Okonkwo Nnaemeka (IT teacher) and was case-managed by Catherine Sasuode.

The financial investment in IT infrastructure by the proprietor of the school, Mrs Victoria Ebimenere Mologe, was the foundation for the success of the Sporting Coders pilot programme.

The former beneficiaries of the Sporting Coders programme who are now undergraduate students are Victory Woyengipreye.Gesiye (Medicine at Afe Babalola university) 2024/2025;

Wisdom Alaere Nathan (Political Science at Niger Delta University) 2024/2025; Chloe Woyengidoubara Gesiye (Pharmacy at Afe Babalola University) 2024/2025; and Victory Peremoboerei Wenibowei (Microbiology at Rivers State University) 2025.

The Sporting Coders programme was specifically designed to give the girl child access to learn new skills while at the same time enjoying taking part in sports in a safe and nurturing space. It was also designed to address the under-representation of girls in STEM courses.

The pilot project used the medium of netball, a once almost extinct sport in Nigeria, as a platform for advocating for and empowering the girl child. It would be recalled that during the period of the Sporting Coders programme, the 21 students were on two separate occasions given a ten thousand Naira educational voucher, as well as free lunch during the twelve Saturdays that they attended the programme.

Furthermore, the CSED Initiative has fulfilled their promise of giving fifty thousand naira each to any of the pioneering cohort that gain admission into a tertiary institution. At the moment, seven members of the netball team of Tare Pet School are currently in their final year, and the CSED Initiative is expected to deliver their promise to these students in the future.

Speaking with journalists, a trustee of the CSED Initiative stated, “We will try to deliver our promise to the netballers. We do not have to beg, steal or borrow to do so. All we have to do is to reduce the quantity and quality of eba and soup we usually eat.”

“The management of Tare Pet School, their parents, members of the Naija Netball Stakeholders and the sports for change activists in Nigeria are proud of these pioneering students. As they have proved that they are not just champions on the netball court, they are also academic and community ambassadors of the game of netball, which is currently taking baby steps in Nigeria.”

Regarding future plans of taking the Sporting Coders training to other parts of Nigeria, the trustee of the CSED Initiative remarked, “It is a gradual process because it is cash intensive, and it involves a lot of factors, like access to electricity, availability of IT teachers and access to computer desktops/laptops, that are outside our control.”

“However, we can disclose authoritatively that through our partnership with the Francis and Fidelia Ibhawoh Foundation, the Sporting Coders programme is going to hold before the end of this year in St Maria Goretti Girls Grammar School in Benin City.

“UNN Secondary School Nsukka is also in pole position for the Sporting Coders programme. As part of our responsibility to take sporting and educational opportunities to at-risk and vulnerable communities. We are likely to take the Sporting Coders training to IDPs in Uhogua (Benin City) and the Cameroonian refugees’ community and their host community in Ogoja (Cross River State).

“But for netballers in the last two locations, we would need to reach a working agreement with the management of IDPs Uhogua, as well as with SEMA, the sport committees of the Cameroonian refugees, representatives of the host community and the UNHCR Ogoja.”

He added, “This is the only way we can ensure that everybody is carried along in order to achieve successful outcomes for the programme beneficiaries in future.”