Guinness Book of World Record by Habitat Schools Ajman for biggest coding event

Ajman: Habitat Schools is now on the official Guinness Book of World Records for organizing a  massive coding event, Web Development Video Hangout with the most number of users anywhere in the world. This is the UAE school group’s second entry in the Guinness Book, the first being the one for being the largest distributor of saplings in 2019.

A total of 2803 grades 4 -12 students from three Habitat Schools, International Indian School, Ajman, Habitat School, al Jurf Ajman, and Habitat School, al Tallah Ajman successfully participated in this video hangout, beating the earlier record set in Jamaica by WiPay Jamaica with 542 users. This is also the first time any attempt is made in the area of coding in India or the Middle East. The attempt was conducted on the 10th of January online in a video meeting where the students shared evidence of websites they coded and created on their own under the Hallmarks of Habitat School. The record was adjudicated by a judge from Guinness World Records. The entire duration of the attempt spanned four hours.

The world record comes as the culmination of a new idea in academics of teaching coding to students from small classes started in 2014. Habitat School was the first school in the entire Middle East and India to implement the Cyber Square academic scheme and curriculum, which is now used for teaching coding in 17 schools across different countries. The school mentored students through digital festivals where students worked on and showcased their talent. This on-the-job skill has also helped students to secure better marks in Computer Science board exams and become more suitable to be employed. All these have gone into equipping schools students to perform this coding task in such coordination.

Chairman of the Schools, Sheikh Sultan Bin Saqer Al Nuaimi said that when the UAE is preparing to take a leap in technological innovation by encouraging coders and digital technology, Habitat Schools find it a happy mission to contribute to this mission of the country.

“Innovative integration of nature and technology is central to the concept of Habitat model of schooling. I am glad and grateful Habitat School community has got recognition in the field of coding as well. As Covid has made us resort to technology in a huge way, it is important schools think of creative ways in which technology is used in education”, said Shamsu Zaman C T, Managing Director, Habitat Schools.

N. P. Muhammad Haris, the London-based conceptualizer of Cyber Square, said that though now a lot of schools and even governments are coming forward to recognizing the importance of teaching coding to school children it was not so in 2014 when Habitat Schools ventured into it. It was good that Habitat  School got this world record opportunity as the schools’ MD willingness to experiment got the idea of its launching pad.

“We understand the idea of introducing coding was based on how much time all of us children spent on their tabs and phones. So once we learn to code, we become students who more than playing video games know how to make those video games. This made us creators of technology and not just users. This felt quite good and challenging”, said Benjamin Adewale Adedoying, Grade 11 student at Habitat School Al Jurf.

“Being part of this project and now being able to contribute to a world record has really given me confidence about what I can achieve, my teachers and mentors of this project have been inspiration and support throughout. Thanks to our school’s scheme of teaching coding, we find learning of the subject quite exciting!” said Mayoori S Menon and Muhammed Razin, students at Habitat school

The CEO C.T. Adil, Academic Dean Wasim Yusuf Bhatt, Principals of Schools Qurat Ain, Mariyam Nizar, and Bala Reddy Ambati, and Computer Science teachers supervised the process.  

-Supplied