Seven ECDE centres in Mombasa will compete in the inaugural county robotic competition next week.
The competition which involves Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (Stem) studies will be held on March 2, at Mama Ngina Waterfront Park.
Each school in the competition will provide six PP2 contestants in finals.
This is part of the county robotics programme targeting ECDE pupils spread across the 104 centres across the county.
The centres taking part in the competition include Likoni, Mtongwe, Kadzandani, Utange, Khadija, Jomvu and SOS children's home.
The Mombasa county targets 30,000 ECDE pupils yearly for the training in robotics.
The programme was launched in February last year and so far six ECDE centres have been equipped to offer the robotics program.
The department of ICT and Innovation said the move will play a pivotal role in inducting ideas of innovation and critical thinking at an early age.
ICT chief officer Anwar Ahmed told the Star that the competition will assess the first batch of pupils, who had benefited from the programme before it was fully rolled out to the remaining 98 public ECDE centres.
"We managed to equip six centres and introduce them to the programme last year, the competition targets PP2 pupils to assess what they have been learning," Ahmed said.
Ahmed said the training also aims at equipping the children with the necessary skills to participate in solving global problems.
“We are targeting 30,000 learners aged between four and six years annually in the 104 public ECDE centres,” he said.
Ahmed said the programme will prepare Mombasa to become a technology and business hub that will transform future generations.
He also said they are going to establish a County Innovation Fund and come up with Community-based Innovation Hubs in the six subcounties.
Last year, Mombasa received global recognition for rolling out ICT projects that have helped improve service delivery.
The county has four projects: Youth ICT Innovations, Online County e-Service, Early Childhood Training Programme and County ICT leadership that have transformed service delivery.
The projects made the county receive the Best Digital Innovation and Leadership Award during the CIO 100 Africa Symposium Awards at Sarova Whitesands Hotel, Mombasa.
Last year in partnership with the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Mombasa campus, the county conducted Covid-19 Innovation Challenge targeting nine secondary school students in the island.
They have also partnered with the Stanbic Bank Foundation, which donated 20 computers that have been distributed to polytechnics.
The computers have so far been distributed to the Likoni and Maunguja colleges.
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