 ug in major initiative to reform teachinglearning of computer science in schools ug in major initiative to reform teachinglearning of computer science in schools ug in major initiative to reform teachinglearning of computer science in schools webmaster sun 3182018 1138 the university of guyana s department of computer science is laying the groundwork to shift away from teaching information technology to the teaching of computing from the primary school level with the aim of fostering innovation and creativity a copromoter of a week of activities said beyond word and excel let s make something let s learn some coding let s build something ug lecturer in computer science lenandlar singh said of the week of activities under the theme advancing computing education in guyana eventually he hopes that guyana would be able to influence the caribbean examinations council cxc to revise its syllabus if we make noise at the right level we can influence cxc he said dr sue sentance of king s college in britain is expected in guyana to facilitate a number of sessions with teachers students and members of the public during march 18 24 in georgetown and berbice the teachereducator and doctor in computer science would be holding interactive sessions with teachers in berbice at the john s campus of the university of guyana on tuesday march 20 and on wednesday 21 at ug s turkeyen campus for teachers around georgetown east coast demerara cyril potter college of education and possibly a few from lethem on thursday there would be a halfday session at bishops high school and another on friday for students at queen s college a public lecture is scheduled for next thursday from 6 pm to 8pm at the theatre guild parade street kingston and a public forum on gender in computing on friday at 3 pm to 5 pm at ug s education lecture theatre there is a major gender issue the ug lecturer said adding that there are issues related to security harassment and lack of opportunities singh emphasised the importance of training teachers modern techniques in computer education delivery from the primary level to help foster innovation among young people for a growth industry if you train your teachers well we can build the information society that we want we need to change our curriculum to make it more relevant to be the creators of things rather than just being the users of things he added singh said the ministry of public telecommunications national frequency management unit guyana telephone and telegraph company and the united kingdombased farnell company would be teaming up to make the initiative a success the ug lecturer said farnell has donated to the guyana initiative  20 bbc microbits  a pocket sized computing device that offers its young users a level of programming accessibility and plans are on stream to acquire more the devices would be used to demonstrate programming skills to teachers and students the longterm goals include revamping the school s curriculum and the teaching of computer science firstly in the primary school instead of in secondary school singh assured that guyana is increasingly having the required internet access and hardware such as easier access to computers at home school laboratories and information communication technology ict hubs to help revolutionise the teachinglearning of computer education article adapted from  http demerarawavescom 20180318 uginmajorinitiativetoreformteachinglearningofcompu  microbit department of computer science 