Kajiado and Kwale Counties, Kenya · 5 September 2023 — From 14 to 16 August 2023, over 220 girls from 20 secondary schools in Kajiado and Kwale Counties of Kenya coded their own robots, developed mobile applications, and 3D-printed design projects at ICT-STEM bootcamps organised by UNESCO in partnership with the Ministry of Education and funded by Prada. For many participants, it was their first interaction with coding or engineering tools.
The bootcamps, hosted at Moi Isinya Girls High School in Kajiado County and Waa Girls Secondary School in Kwale County, formed part of the "Keeping Girls in the Picture" campaign — a initiative under the Gender Flagship of UNESCO's Global Education Coalition. The campaign aims to safeguard progress made on girls' education, ensure learning continuity, and promote girls' safe return to school, particularly in the aftermath of COVID-19 disruptions that affected 1.5 billion learners across more than 190 countries.
Hands-On Skills for the Fourth Industrial Revolution
Guided by trainers from the STEM Impact Centre Kenya, students worked in teams to build and present their ICT projects. The curriculum introduced learners to the fundamentals of artificial intelligence, creative coding, robotics, 3D printing, and mobile app development. Using tools such as microcontrollers, Arduino boards, EV3 systems, and platforms like VEX IQ and Scratch, the girls designed and programmed functional robots — many for the first time.
The objectives of the bootcamps extended well beyond technical exposure:
- Skill development: Introducing foundational 21st-century digital skills, including AI, creative coding, robotics, 3D printing, and mobile app development.
- Mentorship: Increasing exposure to STEM career opportunities through mentorship and access to female role models in a field that remains male-dominated.
- Psychosocial outcomes: Promoting gender responsiveness and self-efficacy in relation to participation in STEM-related subjects.
On the final day, learners had the opportunity to engage with women leaders in STEM and ICT — a deliberate component designed to foster mentorship and demystify technical careers.
A Student's Voice from Moi Isinya
One student from Moi Girls Isinya High School described the experience:
"We've learned a lot, especially how to develop our own mobile app. Personally, I've learned a lot even though I don't do [computing], but at least now, I won't be blank when I'm given a computer! ... I'm expecting to learn more, even after I go home. I will be able to teach other students what I learned after this programme."
The peer-teaching aspiration expressed by the student reflects one of the bootcamp's implicit goals: creating a ripple effect within schools and communities that extends well beyond the three-day programme.
Training Teachers on Gender-Responsive Pedagogy
While the girls coded, teachers from Kajiado and Kwale attended parallel training sessions aimed at strengthening the capacity of the education system to provide gender-responsive and transformative STEM and digital education. Over 40 educators experimented with UNESCO's Quality Gender-Responsive STEM Education manual, discussed strategies to mitigate factors that inhibit girls from pursuing STEM-ICT subjects, and explored how ICT integration in classrooms could enhance STEM learning.
The teacher-training component acknowledges that one-off bootcamps, however inspiring, cannot substitute for systemic change in how STEM subjects are taught and how girls are encouraged — or discouraged — in classrooms across the academic year.
The Global Context: A Persistent Gender Digital Divide
The bootcamps take place against a stark global backdrop. According to the International Telecommunication Union's Facts and Figures 2022 report, girls remain less likely than boys to have digital skills globally. A 2019 report from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics found that women comprised only 29.3 per cent of scientific researchers worldwide.
In Africa, where the so-called fourth industrial revolution is expected to create a wide range of new jobs requiring STEM and ICT skills, the under-representation of women in these fields has significant economic and social implications. UNESCO's approach treats girls' engagement with STEM not only as a matter of educational equity but as a development imperative.
Scheherazade Feddal, Education Programme Specialist at the UNESCO Multi-sectoral Regional Office for Eastern Africa, framed the stakes:
"Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) are the driving forces behind innovation, progress, and the solutions to some of the world's most pressing challenges. It's imperative that we ensure that everyone, regardless of gender, has a seat at this transformative table."
Part of a Broader Campaign
The "Keeping Girls in the Picture" campaign has produced a variety of advocacy tools since its launch in 2020, including toolkits, social media packs, guidelines, and films to promote public awareness and multi-stakeholder cooperation on research-based policies to prevent widening gender inequalities in education. The Global Education Coalition itself comprises over 200 member organisations.
In June 2023, UNESCO had also held a STEM/ICT Camp of Excellence at TumuTumu Girls' High School in Karatina, reaching over 130 girls and 21 teachers. Funded by Intel, that five-day camp similarly focused on robotics, coding, and 3D printing alongside mentorship from women in STEM fields.
Looking Forward
The bootcamps in Kajiado and Kwale are modest in scale — 220 girls across two counties — but they represent a replicable model that UNESCO has begun to extend across Eastern Africa, including in Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda. The question for policymakers is whether such interventions, in the absence of sustained curriculum reform and infrastructure investment, can meaningfully shift the gender composition of Africa's future STEM workforce.
For the girls who built their first robot or printed their first 3D design in August 2023, the experience has at minimum expanded the horizon of what they imagine is possible. Whether that translates into tertiary enrolment in STEM fields will depend on the quality of the schools they return to, the teachers now trained in gender-responsive pedagogy, and the economic opportunities available to them in the years ahead.
Sources
- UNESCO, "Keeping Girls in the picture: UNESCO joins hands with Prada to promote Girls' ICT-STEM Education in Kenya," 5 September 2023 —
- UNESCO, "STEM Camp of Excellence for Girls and Teachers in Kenya" —
- UNESCO, "Keeping Girls in the Picture" campaign —
- International Telecommunication Union, Facts and Figures 2022 —
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