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Cool Lifestyle Correspondent
There is a new breed of tech savvy generation that is demanding to sit on the lap of the icon named Robert Gabriel Mugabe, the visionary who planted the mastered seed of — learning by donating thousands of computers in schools.

This chosen generation numbering 53 came from 15 Early Childhoohod Development (ECD) centres converged at Kinderkastle Pre-school for the inaugural computer skills league organised by Dzidzo Inhaka Audio Visual Learning.

Words will not do justice to the performances that were done by pre scholars with some coming as far as Chirundu border post, Norton, Chitungwiza, Domboshava and Harare’s suburbs.

Perhaps the best is to say Zimbabwe will be a global technological powerhouse in ten years time if these children are groomed and nurtured in the name of national interest.

The pre-schools computer skills event which is a brain child of Dzidzo Inhaka Audio Visual Learning executive director, Shepherd Chimururi, was held under the theme, “Discovering and nurturing technological giants in line with the revised curriculum.” The ages varied between three and five years.

In an interview with Cool Lifestyle, Chimururi said they organised the ground breaking event in their quest to fulfil the ICT requirements of the skill driven revised curriculum and to affords the young ones an ICT platform to showcase their skills.

“Our idea was to bring together schools who are teaching their children genuine computers lessons and let children show their skills. It was both a moment of pride and learning for the learners and their facilitators.

The ultimate vision is to approach computer education as a sport which is there to be enjoyed. We want the tech-talented kids to be awarded scholarships starting at primary level just as good as they do in rugby, soccer, music, chess, etc.”

“The computer skills exhibition has to turn into a full fledged competing league that is dedicated to increasing and enhancing computer science education and opportunities for all children in our nation. This competition will challenge young students to apply their rapidly evolving intellectual abilities and add to their experience of working together. Computational thinking is a fundamental skill for everyone, not just for computer scientists,” he said

Catch them young is our motto and we have been successful in doing that. The exhibition of computer skills by these pre readers children who can not read nor write deserve excited and left observers and parents who attended in awe.

To make it fun and relaxed it is the child who chose a programme they wanted to use and executed an assignment to demonstrate their technological prowess, creativity and intellectual development through painting, colouring, solving puzzles, building objects, drawing shapes and patterns.

ICT experts were also at handy chipping in with vital advices on grey areas that emerged along the way especially on the child’s ability to follow instructions in executing a given task using a specific software application, keyboard and mouse handling skills, eye hand coordination, speed and time of completing task.

Though all children performed well but outstanding performances came from Melisa Nyawaranda (5) of Sheali E-learning ECD centre who showed great eye for science and discovery as she used a programme to mix basic colours like blue and yellow to come up with secondary colours like green and purple in order to paint.

Kinderkastle pre school student Ryan Chipuriro exhibited great engineering potential when he used shapes to build a rocket.

Tatenda Ziwa (4) of Royal hearts used a colouring software to paint a dragon template. Tecla Matanhire (4) of Little Rubbies wowed the onlookers with her problem solving skills when she did the matching game.

Jay Quadosh Virimai Mubingi (4) of Shine Star pre school exhibited great mouse handling skills as he connected the dots on a programme that teaches about different means of transport.

Jesca Marufu (3) did the drag and drop game that teaches about different seasons. Champions for Life pre school student Ethel Kasirori impressed many neutrals when she wrote her name with a mouse.

Taropafadzwa Muchovo of Shalom Junior captivated the audience by the way she coloured the butterfly.

Schools that attended the event included Kinderkastle the hosts, Agape pre-school, Shalom Junior from Norton, Southside View, Champions for Life from Domboshava, Little Rubbies pre-school, Royal hearts, Sheali ECD from Chitungwiza, Rutendo ECD, Shine Stars, Designer Life and Lumangela Nursery from Chirundu border post.

The second pre schools computer skills league which will be the grand official launch will be held in October in Harare before the event spreads to Bulawayo and Mutare.