CLOSING CEREMONY AND PRIZE PRESENTATION OF THE PENANG STATE-LEVEL CODING COMPETITIONS

SPEECH BY CHIEF MINISTER OF PENANG

AT THE CLOSING CEREMONY AND PRIZE PRESENTATION

OF THE PENANG STATE-LEVEL CODING COMPETITIONS

 

 

29 AUGUST 2019

WISMA YEAP CHOR EE

 

 

Dato’ Yoon Chon Leong

Director of Penang Science Cluster

Mr Ooi Peng Ee

CEO of Penang Science Cluster

Teachers and students

Member of the media

Ladies and gentlemen

A very good afternoon to all of you.

Let me first say that it is an invigorating experience for me to be here to see your creative Coding projects in the inaugural Penang State Coding Competition for Primary and Secondary schools. This is the first time this type of competition is being organized in the whole of Malaysia and it makes me proud to see that Penang is leading the way for the country again in doing something different for this field.

The Penang State Level Coding Competition offers the opportunity and brings together primary and secondary school students who have gone through programmes under the Coding for All initiative by the state government to exhibit and present their projects. This year, primary school students from over 50 schools which are part of the Code Club programme have to develop a game using Scratch whereas secondary school students use the Python programming language to develop a game as well. And today, we see the assortment of works that students have submitted over the past few weeks and months.

We hope that this competition will encourage more students to explore further in coding and be part of Penang’s talent for the future.

This competition provides an opportunity for students to showcase what you have created and also to gain exposure to what your peers in other schools have done. I hope all of you will take this opportunity to learn from each other and build on the ideas and creations of your fellow students to improve on your Coding skills and innovative ideas further. 

In the face of rapid technological change, the state government took this challenge to prepare our students well for the future. The state government is doing what is necessary in ensuring our young minds are not left out in picking up this skill so vital to the future needs of Industry 4.0.

As such, the Penang State Government since last year launched the “Coding For All” with a total of RM6 million over the next 3 years (RM2 million per year) in Penang Science Cluster to enable our young develop coding skills. Penang is the only State in Malaysia doing this!

Preparing our young students for the future and creating a bright future for our students are one of the most important responsibilities of any government. The Penang2030 Vision which the state government announced last year belongs to all Penangites and in 10 years’ time, many of you should have completed tertiary education and entered the job market as young men and women full of zest towards life with the hope of being among the successful ones who make it real big! As your Chief Minister, I am committed to making this happen. Our government and ministries, school principals and teachers, parents and our community must work together to make this happen because we all have a stake in Penang2030.

At this point, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our industry partners who have provided so much support and cooperation with the State Government to inspire and educate our young.

Thank you.