Software and application development is one of the fast growing areas in the technology industry and more young people continue to bring out the creativity in them in this regard.
Last weekend, about 30 trainees who had acquired skills in software development converged in Accra to showcase mobile and web applications they had designed to tackle specific issues across different sectors.
Some of the applications demonstrated included: ‘Alodie’ an application that allows people to send money into mobile money accounts without using USSD codes; ‘FundFair’ which connects low income earners to donors to allow them pay off medical debt; ‘Sparky’— a platform that connects start-ups to investors; ‘Go Legal’ — designed to connect clients to lawyers, and many other applications which are not yet available to the public.
Another which could be of immense benefit to stakeholders in the education sector, is a mobile application intended to solve teacher absenteeism. The developers, Korkor Mensah and Jerry Gasu, spoke about their inspiration for the project and the prospect of the innovation they were looking forward to implementing fully.
Application
The partners in an interview with The Spectator said they took up the initiative because “the absence of teachers tends to negatively impact teaching and learning in schools.”
“Teacher absenteeism affects the confidence of parents and leads to low turnout of students so we decided to build an application that does a real time tracking of the teacher’s presence or absence,” the duo noted.
The application, according to the developers, “allows a teaching staff to scan a Quick Response (QR) code with his or her mobile phone and logs in with identification (ID) which has already been generated for him or her.
“After the teacher successfully logs in, he is automatically seen on a dashboard that is monitored by the administration of the school. The application then records the number of teachers who reported on time, those who reported late as well as those who did not show up at all,” they explained.
Collaboration
Ms Mensah is a Quality Assurance Test Analyst at Ecobank. In her role, she ensures that mobile and web applications and systems “are tested to ensure they are fit for purpose or do not have any defects.”
She had enrolled her two children at Codetrain, a Ghanaian tech company that trains individuals to become software developers, but was compelled to eventually take up the course and acquire the skills herself.
Jerry, on the other hand, started teaching himself how to code at home but realised there was more to learn beyond the self-taught approach he had adopted and, therefore, signed up to the structured courses that were being offered by the institution.
It was during the one-year intensive training at Codetrain that they both decided to work together on the teacher absenteeism application which they hope to fine-tune and make available to schools across the country.
“This is a demo and we have not rolled it out on full scale. We are open to other ideas and collaboration because this [application] solves a social problem. Our hope is to be able to roll out to schools in Ghana and possibly across Africa.
“If teachers are absenting themselves from classes then we will never get the quality education we want to give our children so this application is going to solve a challenge in the education system and we hope to partner other organisations to make this a reality,” Ms Mensah said.
Beyond Codetrain, Jerry intends to start his own business and continue to solve “real world problems” with his expertise.
Insight
The partners admitted that there were other applications that dealt with absenteeism but this did not stop them from coming up with their own innovation or solution.
“We know other well-established organisations have applications they use internally to track attendance of staff but in our research we do not think teachers are scanning QR codes to log in their attendance; they still make use of a notebook or a register.
“There are other applications solving the same problem but there is never a single solution to a problem. We decided to focus on the educational sector because we know ours will be unique,” Ms Mensah stated.
She was one of the few females among the graduating cohort. She said her aim of becoming a Quality Assurance Engineer in future would require programming skills hence the decision to join the course at Codetrain which she described as insightful.
“I work closely with application developers; the developers make the application, then my role is to test it. So I believe the skills I have now would help me to become a good Test Analyst.
“A year ago, I did not know how to code, I could not write a single line of code. My 10-year-old son brought a coding assignment home and I could not help him. I was really embarrassed and felt I had let my son down so weeks later I enrolled at Codetrain and a year down the line, the journey has been rewarding,” Ms Mensah recounted.
The developers encouraged individuals to sharpen their technology skills and explore the opportunities as well as solutions they could provide within the sector.
Ms Mensah advised young women to aspire to fill the existing gap in the technology industry while Jerry also urged aspiring software developers to be patient and remain focused because their efforts would eventually yield results.