(Seychelles News Agency) - Seychelles has launched its second edition of the Africa Code Week Challenge competition and is encouraging local children aged 8-16 to participate.

The challenge is being organised by the Department of Science, Technology and Innovation (DISTI) under the theme "Protecting Life Together", with a deadline to submit the video montage being September 13, according to the DISTI website.

The aim of the competition is to continue to promote digital skills for students, encourage them to co-create impact projects in a creative and innovative way and provide them with a platform to showcase their talents on the African continent.

At the launching on Tuesday, Jessica D'Unienville, the African Code Challenge Ambassador, said, "We are living in a digital era where programming is becoming a new language, which we want the children of Seychelles to understand."

She added that the children of Seychelles should not only be using apps and games, but also be able to create them.

Participants will have to create a game using the 'scratch' application, create a video montage of how the game works, how it was created and how it ties to the theme and upload it to YouTube.

Scratch is a visual programming language that allows students to create their own interactive stories, games and animations.

"Scratch is an easy programme to use, and children have got accustomed to it since primary school, so it is not really complicated to use," said D'Unienville.

The top three national winners will receive cash prizes and get a chance to participate in the African continental-level competition.

The competition, which is spearheaded by SAP - Systems, Applications, and Products in Data Processing – a software company - in the Africa Code Week digital skills development initiative has benefitted millions of young Africans.

In the first edition last year, Alana Commettant from Belonie secondary school and Danirio Albert from Mont Fleuri primary school were the combined first prize winners.

Seychelles, an archipelago in the western Indian Ocean, finished ninth overall at the 2021 Africa Code Challenge.  

The Seychelles' team create a game called 'The Prodigies', which follows five antagonists, who are students going around solving various problems affecting the island nation such as saving the ocean, and families and fighting COVID-19.

Forty countries participated with over 100 project videos submitted. The top three entries from 36 countries made it into the continental final, with 20 projects making it to the final judging stage.